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This is a long winded one, but I would be grateful for advice as I am so confused about what to do. I apologise in advance for any spelling errors as I am Dyslexic and also have difficulties in using a keyboard accurately.
Earlier this year DWP discovered that due to their error they have been overpaying my ESA since September 2023, when my partner reached retirement age, went onto state pension and at the same time stopped receiving his Carer's Allowance while retaining an 'underlying entitlement'. They have erroneously been counting CA as part of our income since, but also also didn't adjust the ESA figures to take into account his state pension.
I have had four recent telephone calls with DWP about this situation (I have kept notes), and each time staff told me that as the error in overpayment is on their part they are unable to claw back the overpayment, and not to worry. I was told that I am also due backpayment for a disability premium I ought to have been receiving since September 2023 (I was sent a short form in this respect, was urged to return it quickly by the first person to whom I spoke, and have done so).. I was told the arrears of this premium is a 'high value' payment, and actual figures were given (again, noted down).
During April I received no ESA whatsoever, and no explanation was offered as staff seemed unable to give one. It seems coincidental that this was while they were aparently working on this backdated payment of the premium. Although DWP did not tell me, they also informed the local authority's Housing Benefit department that my ESA claim had ended, and the council sent me an email to this effect, and stopped my HB. I suffer high anxiety anyway and these developments and lackof income and HB just about blew me out of the water.
A letter I was meant to have received some weeks ago about the error and the situation regarding my ESA has never arrived, and despite requests on the phone and in writing it has never appeared. I feel there must be a reason for this that would somehow disadvantage the DWP. I was made promises that my missing ESA payments woud be expedited, but nothing happened and finally I wrote a letter of complaint as I could not cope with another call, which in two insurances previously had included a wait of 50 and 40 minutes respectively to get connected.
Late last Friday afternoon I received an unexpected telephoen call from DWP to talk about my ESA missing payments, and also as it transpired the ovepayment issue. I was bamboozled with too much information about figures, and the person who rang (who was laughing, for some unknown reason, throughout the conversation) kept telling me what had happened but in different ways. This is the sort of thign that confuses me horribly, and with DWP knowing full well that I am Autistic I believe they were trying to deliberatrely confuse me with the call and its content. In fact I ended up so confused I felt I was going to have a mini meltdown. From the content of the call it now seems they ARE recovering the overpayment, and have done this by adjusting the figures. I challenegd them on this, citing what I had been told by three previous DWP call takers, and suggested that after all they are now clawing back the money I was told they could not claw back because overpayment was due to their error since 2023. I was told they were not clawing it back, they have just made 'adjustments'. Seems to me the result is the same whatever they call it.
I was also promised my missing ESA (explanation for it not beign paid: computer cound't cope) and assured my claim was indeed still open (so why the communication to the council that it had ended?) and that pasyment was now due of those missing April amounts, and would be made soon. Then I was told that they could make a Faster Payments transaction so the money would be in my bank account within the hour, and in fact that he would personally do this. The guy I spoke to made it sound like he was doing me a favour. As it happened, the missing ESA payments did not appear until some time the next day (I checked my bank account online several times after the end of the conversation, and during the night). A small point but it just raised my anxiety higher. I was told that I would receive a letter from DWP outlining the conversation, with figures, and was also told I would hear separately about an amount of just under £200 that I now (apparently) owe DWP, and that they would need to recover. No such letter has yet appeared but there has been a bank holiday so that may not have helped.
I get a strong feelign that DWP are tryign to ignore/dismiss the information I was originally given by several different call takers: namely that due to an error on DWP's part they cannot pursue recovery of overpayments, and that that I was also owed a backdated premium from September 2023. This begs the question, are DWP staff so poorly trained they all gave me the exact same information about the overpayment error, and yet now I am meant to believe the caller from last week is the one who has got it right? Adding insult to injury by telling me I now owe DWP anyway was the poison icing on the cake so to speak.
What to do next...A friend who used to work at the Citizens Aadvice has told me, "You have strong grounds for appeal. Before you do anything else request by email and in writing, a Review of their decision to claw back any alleged over payment. You don't have to state your case or provide any evidence at this stage, just a very simple sentence asking for a Review. They have to concede this. Then that buys you time to build up your argument with the help of CAB or an Advisor. In the meantime audio record all telephone conversations It is admissible evidence."
Another friend, whose partner used to work for DWP, has suggested, "Complain through local MP. Say you want the calls listened to where you were told you were owed money.Calls are recorded for training and monitoring, monitoring being the relevant part here. They keep them for at least 24 months (CMS has increased this but not sure about UC) DWP no longer charge for copies of recordings. Explain to MP your additional needs short-term memory problems, etc. Say you want a full written response explaining the overpayment calculation vs. the arrears of additional premiums in a format without jargon. Also, say you want a better explanation of why you did not receive your payment at all in April and when he said payment would be received within the hour why it wasn't. Explain the distress all this has caused you, and you want a consolatory payment for both this and the conflicting information given by caseworkers. At the end of the complaint process they will signpost you to the Independent Case Examiner (ICE). You then have 6 months to escalate to them if you are not happy."
I really don't know where to start. I am still wating for the DWP's letter of several weeks ago that has never arrived (it was referred to by the DWP member of staff in the second telephone call I had) and which I now believe is not coming as my verbal and written requests for the letter to be re-sent have seemingly been ignored. Surely the same letter cannot be lost in the post twice, it just seems too coincidental.
As an aside, I reach state retirement age in September, and I wonder if DWP are hoping I will just accept what the caller last week has said in his (deliberately?) confusing way, and will just go away and not make any challenges, so that when my ESA claim ends naturally in September it will be more dififcult for me to make a challenge to their clawback/recovery decision and the way they have handled my situation. I am still emotionally distressed over what has happened these past few weeks, and I expected a written response to my letter of compalint, responding to each point I raised, not a call out of the blue, which always puts me out of step.
Thanks so much for reading this far. I really don't know what to do next and would appreciate some sound and correct advice.
Earlier this year DWP discovered that due to their error they have been overpaying my ESA since September 2023, when my partner reached retirement age, went onto state pension and at the same time stopped receiving his Carer's Allowance while retaining an 'underlying entitlement'. They have erroneously been counting CA as part of our income since, but also also didn't adjust the ESA figures to take into account his state pension.
I have had four recent telephone calls with DWP about this situation (I have kept notes), and each time staff told me that as the error in overpayment is on their part they are unable to claw back the overpayment, and not to worry. I was told that I am also due backpayment for a disability premium I ought to have been receiving since September 2023 (I was sent a short form in this respect, was urged to return it quickly by the first person to whom I spoke, and have done so).. I was told the arrears of this premium is a 'high value' payment, and actual figures were given (again, noted down).
During April I received no ESA whatsoever, and no explanation was offered as staff seemed unable to give one. It seems coincidental that this was while they were aparently working on this backdated payment of the premium. Although DWP did not tell me, they also informed the local authority's Housing Benefit department that my ESA claim had ended, and the council sent me an email to this effect, and stopped my HB. I suffer high anxiety anyway and these developments and lackof income and HB just about blew me out of the water.
A letter I was meant to have received some weeks ago about the error and the situation regarding my ESA has never arrived, and despite requests on the phone and in writing it has never appeared. I feel there must be a reason for this that would somehow disadvantage the DWP. I was made promises that my missing ESA payments woud be expedited, but nothing happened and finally I wrote a letter of complaint as I could not cope with another call, which in two insurances previously had included a wait of 50 and 40 minutes respectively to get connected.
Late last Friday afternoon I received an unexpected telephoen call from DWP to talk about my ESA missing payments, and also as it transpired the ovepayment issue. I was bamboozled with too much information about figures, and the person who rang (who was laughing, for some unknown reason, throughout the conversation) kept telling me what had happened but in different ways. This is the sort of thign that confuses me horribly, and with DWP knowing full well that I am Autistic I believe they were trying to deliberatrely confuse me with the call and its content. In fact I ended up so confused I felt I was going to have a mini meltdown. From the content of the call it now seems they ARE recovering the overpayment, and have done this by adjusting the figures. I challenegd them on this, citing what I had been told by three previous DWP call takers, and suggested that after all they are now clawing back the money I was told they could not claw back because overpayment was due to their error since 2023. I was told they were not clawing it back, they have just made 'adjustments'. Seems to me the result is the same whatever they call it.
I was also promised my missing ESA (explanation for it not beign paid: computer cound't cope) and assured my claim was indeed still open (so why the communication to the council that it had ended?) and that pasyment was now due of those missing April amounts, and would be made soon. Then I was told that they could make a Faster Payments transaction so the money would be in my bank account within the hour, and in fact that he would personally do this. The guy I spoke to made it sound like he was doing me a favour. As it happened, the missing ESA payments did not appear until some time the next day (I checked my bank account online several times after the end of the conversation, and during the night). A small point but it just raised my anxiety higher. I was told that I would receive a letter from DWP outlining the conversation, with figures, and was also told I would hear separately about an amount of just under £200 that I now (apparently) owe DWP, and that they would need to recover. No such letter has yet appeared but there has been a bank holiday so that may not have helped.
I get a strong feelign that DWP are tryign to ignore/dismiss the information I was originally given by several different call takers: namely that due to an error on DWP's part they cannot pursue recovery of overpayments, and that that I was also owed a backdated premium from September 2023. This begs the question, are DWP staff so poorly trained they all gave me the exact same information about the overpayment error, and yet now I am meant to believe the caller from last week is the one who has got it right? Adding insult to injury by telling me I now owe DWP anyway was the poison icing on the cake so to speak.
What to do next...A friend who used to work at the Citizens Aadvice has told me, "You have strong grounds for appeal. Before you do anything else request by email and in writing, a Review of their decision to claw back any alleged over payment. You don't have to state your case or provide any evidence at this stage, just a very simple sentence asking for a Review. They have to concede this. Then that buys you time to build up your argument with the help of CAB or an Advisor. In the meantime audio record all telephone conversations It is admissible evidence."
Another friend, whose partner used to work for DWP, has suggested, "Complain through local MP. Say you want the calls listened to where you were told you were owed money.Calls are recorded for training and monitoring, monitoring being the relevant part here. They keep them for at least 24 months (CMS has increased this but not sure about UC) DWP no longer charge for copies of recordings. Explain to MP your additional needs short-term memory problems, etc. Say you want a full written response explaining the overpayment calculation vs. the arrears of additional premiums in a format without jargon. Also, say you want a better explanation of why you did not receive your payment at all in April and when he said payment would be received within the hour why it wasn't. Explain the distress all this has caused you, and you want a consolatory payment for both this and the conflicting information given by caseworkers. At the end of the complaint process they will signpost you to the Independent Case Examiner (ICE). You then have 6 months to escalate to them if you are not happy."
I really don't know where to start. I am still wating for the DWP's letter of several weeks ago that has never arrived (it was referred to by the DWP member of staff in the second telephone call I had) and which I now believe is not coming as my verbal and written requests for the letter to be re-sent have seemingly been ignored. Surely the same letter cannot be lost in the post twice, it just seems too coincidental.
As an aside, I reach state retirement age in September, and I wonder if DWP are hoping I will just accept what the caller last week has said in his (deliberately?) confusing way, and will just go away and not make any challenges, so that when my ESA claim ends naturally in September it will be more dififcult for me to make a challenge to their clawback/recovery decision and the way they have handled my situation. I am still emotionally distressed over what has happened these past few weeks, and I expected a written response to my letter of compalint, responding to each point I raised, not a call out of the blue, which always puts me out of step.
Thanks so much for reading this far. I really don't know what to do next and would appreciate some sound and correct advice.