Proof of capital and benefits

nollie

Hi my name is Neal. In 2006 i was diagnosed with severe mental health problems and was hospitalised for 2 months. I somehow managed to get back to work for 5 years. A place i had worked at for nearly 30 years since i was 17. In 2011/12 i had a major relapse in my mental state which caused me to collapse at work and be taken to hospital where i was diagnosed with a cluster of stomach ulcers as well as mental health problems.To cut a long story short it was decided by the works doctor,my doctor and my consultant that i would have to finish on a small occupational health pension. So i qualified for housing benefit and council tax and also get low rate disability allowance. Moving on to the present day and 8 years on my life hasnt changed. I am total recluse never go anywhere dont drink and dont smoke. Today i got a letter from the council which i opened only because i recognised the envelope. The letter read "I note from my records that you have not supplied proof of your capital or occupational pension for some time". The problem i have is that i never open my bank statements or check my money that it is part of my illness. When i found my 2 months bank statements to my horror my savings were £19000. When i finished work i got a £5000 lump sum and over the years mum debited my account with £2500 of my dads money after he died. Then about 4 or 5 years ago i got £4000 back due to under payment of housing benefit. The problem is my mental health is through the roof . I genuinely did not Know i had this much money and i have a month to send 2 months bank statements. I dont think i can deal with this on my own . I think that they will feel  i have tried fraud them. I know reading it back if i was in my right mind thats what i would think. I have searched the internet all day to see  if this has happened to anyone else but could not find anything. I hope no one judges me badly. I cannot stop ruminating about it and it is causing me  great distress . Hopefully some of you will understand if you have or have had mental health disorders. Money does not motivate me but i do need a roof over my head. I dont go out off my flat.I know they wont believe me .I dont Know where to turn. I just wondered if anybody has come across my situation and knows what the outcome was. If not thank you for taking the time to read my post. Ive never written on a forum before this is quite a big thing for me.!!
Thanks Neal.

poppy123456

HI and welcome,

Your post is quite difficult to read because there's no paragraphs but i'll try my best to give advice.

Firstly, and i know it's not easy but try not to panic. You need to send those bank statements to your local council ASAP. If you have a phone i would ring them to start with and tell them you have over £16,000 in savings because you're not entitled to housing benefit or council tax reduction. The longer you leave doing this, the more money you will owe.

I think i read that you're claiming a disability benefit, so i assume you mean DLA or PIP? If so then these are not means tested and savings won't affect them.

What other benefits are you claiming? ESA possibly? If aso then is this Contributions based or Income Related? If it's income Related then this is also affected by savings and you won't be entitled to this with your amount of savings.

If it's Contributions based with an income related top up then you'll keep the contributions based part and the top up will stop. Either way, you'll need to ring DWP/ESA and tell them about your savings. Your ESA will most likely be suspended, until this is sorted.

Explain to them exactly what you said here. You'll have an overpayment that will need to be repaid back and potentially a fine on top for not reporting the changes but if you do that ASAP then i'm sure everything will be fine, other than the small fine and having to repay back everything you owe.

Hope this helps and if you have any questions please do just ask.

steve51

Hi @nollie

Good Morning & Welcome it’s great to meet you today.

I am one of a team of Community Champion’s here at Scope.

Sorry to read about your current problems.

Yes since my Stroke money has no meaning at all for me.

Please please let me know if you need any help/support with things as I bet you are very very stressed at the moment.

@steve51

nollie

poppy123456 and @steve51 
Thank you very much for your replies its very much appreciated.

poppy123456

Sorry for not being very clear. This is what i get.
occupational health pension                                £141.80

Pip daily living component                                   £59.70

Work related activity group                                  £29.05     (which i dont understand because i cannot find that money on my 
                                                                                             bank statement? )


Your claim for employment and support allowance

A change in the employment and support allowance rate payable
we have looked at your claim again following a recent change.

We cannot pay you employment and support allowance from the 28th june.

This because you will have reached the maximum of 365 days that you can get
contribution based employment and support allowance.

This is because of

a change in money coming in

you are not getting any more income related employment and support allowance.

We cannot pay you income related employment support allowance because you have as much more
money coming in than the law says you need to live on.


We have used the tax years ending 5 april 2010 and 5 april 2011 to assess your claim.

We may still credit you with national insurance contributions while claiming employment and 
support allowance. (Regarding this letter. I get it every year and its always written the  same with the same quotes)

Just to say i have never received esa as far as i know. which i am glad about because it makes me feel like i am living of my own earnings via my pension and i am not going cap in hand to the job center. which i dont think i could have coped with.


I hope you can understand the information have given.

I dont fully understand it myself because of my illness i just took it for granted that everything was being paid.

I Really Really appreciate your help and support
Neal.
ps i have returned my documents and bank statements as you suggested back to the council today.

Thank you very much

steve51

Hi @nollie

No probs my friend.

Please please let me know if there’s anything else that I can help/support you with?????

@steve51

janer1967

Hi and welcome to the community, glad you have joined us and that you have been given sme good advice to try and sort this out.

Try not to worry I hope they are understanding and come to some arrangement wit you

poppy123456

@nollie Thanks for that extra information. I can tell you that from what you have written here that because you have a Occupational Pension of £141 per week and you're in the WRAG for ESA then this is only paid for a maximum of 1 year. As your pension will be classed as income for any income related ESA then you're not entitled to receive any ESA money, which is the reason you don't receive anything. However, they should still be paying your NI credits towards your state pension.

That's good news as far as any overpayment is concerned. It will just be the housing benefit and council tax reduction that you will owe.

I'm sure that there will just be a fine on top of the overpayment which you will have to make arrangements to repay it back. In the meantime you'll need to make other arrangements to pay your rent because your housing benefit could be suspended.

If you need any more help please do just ask, always happy to help

gaz1960

Hi Neal,welcome to the site,hope you can find what help and guidance you are looking for.