ESA reduced as loan being treated as income. Help!

Thanks. I have had some of the work done, other things have to wait until the spring, and I will give my dad back as much as I can afford now. I'll ask them to look again at the decision and send them the invoices for the flooring I bought and the money I paid for the labour.

hi Gordon,

Well to add insult to injury they have now demanded £228 overpayment. I haven't even had chance to send the letter asking them to look at the decision again as I'm waiting on copies of quotes. I'm hoping everything works out as it says in black and white in their own guidelines that loans for improvements should not be counted as capital or income.

Unfortunately I can't ask them to disregard their payment of dla arrears as it was almost 2 years ago, that is the money from which I had saved for my dental work. If it wasn't for that even with my dad's loans my account would have been under £6,000. I'm hoping I'm just one of the unlucky ones where they deliberately make a wrong decision to reach their targets.

It was less than 26 weeks when they made the decision. I spoke to them yesterday and they are going to send me reasons why the decision was made and wait for my reply before they do the mandatory reconsideration. The person I spoke to seemed surprised that I had provided proof of the loan plus quotes for all the work and still got refused. I really believe they looked at my fragile mental state and thought they wouldn't be challenged. I'm still hoping they will change the decision and it won't have to go to a tribunal.

lianna wrote: My main problem is that I don't understand why they are treating it as savings, when it says a loan for home improvements should not be treated as savings/income. I have a signed letter from my dad saying it is a loan for home improvements.
I'm having some of the work done now but the outside work needs to wait until the weather is better.

I think you'll find a loan probably has to be a commercial loan from a licenced financial organisation such as a bank.