ESA capital tribunal refused

Hi,
Went to tribunal 2 days ago.
Got word that they have rejected appeal.
Back in June 2014 I received money from deceased relation which took me over the threshold of £16K.
I fully declared this to the department. Nothing was hidden. Then Income support stopped.
In August 2014 I was moved from incapacity benefit to ESA contributory which is current to date. Income had dropped to 16K at this time.
In 2015 a year later I applied for income based ESA, that was rejected in Dec 2015 saying i still had 16k although I didn't and have now nothing in savings.

Today the 20th I have written a letter to ask for statement of reasons.
What I want to know is could I make a fresh claim, for ESA income based?

Thanks
Lorna

Lorna

From your post it sounds as if the DWP consider you to still be in possession of at least part of the inheritance, even though you may have disposed of the money, the DWP can consider you to still be in possession of it if they believe that you disposed of it with the intention of reclaiming benefits and example of this would be your paying your mortgage off early, although the rules are complicated and at the discretion of a DWP Decision Maker.

So you can make a new claim for ESA(IR) but I would expect you to have to show how you have disposed of the money.

Were you asked to do this as part of your appeal? The Decision from your appeal should have given you some idea of how much money the DWP still consider you to be in possession of.

Gordon