Unexpected DWP phone call about ESA

Hi,

I suffer from a form of anxiety that means I don't answer the telephone, but just let it go to voicemail so I can then decide whether or not to respond.

Twenty minutes ago I received a call that said "This is a call from DWP about your ESA benefit. We'll try to call you again a few moments.". They haven't called again. Now, the lady sounded 'nice' enough, but obviously this is worrying. Anyone know what it might be about?

I am currently waiting on an MR decision, but that's for PIP, not ESA.

I have never given them my phone number and always request that all communication is made in writing, but I realise it is easy enough to find someone's number and it would be a miracle if they observed such niceties as my request.

I'm now dreading hearing the phone ring again as I don't know if it is safe to even answer it.

Well. I've just bitten the bullet and called them back to try and find out what it's about, using 1471 (the voicemail left no callback option), and I got the message "Thank you for calling. We tried to call you earlier today but we were unsuccessful. You do not need to call us again, we will call you if we need more information."

I wanted to call them on my own terms, but they really don't like that, do they?

At least now my annoyance is balancing out my anxiety a bit.


Hopefully they now know I've tried to call them back and I'm not deliberately trying to dodge them.