ESA payments.

williammcm

Could someone help me not sure what I should do. I get ESA every two weeks and low rate PiP every month. Last week I got a letter from DWP saying that they where reducing my money because I took money out of a private pension. The amount I took out after tax was appropriate £18k. The money was in my account for about three weeks. The money was used to pay the arrears on my mortgage, before repossession and my grandchildren’s school fees. My total savings in my bank is £1800.00 one thousand eight hundred pounds. I also got a letter from the Rates office saying I now have to pay rates and a bill for £ 940.00 was enclosed. I hope someone can gave me some information and help with the above. 

Kind Regards 
Williammcm. 

poppy123456

HI and welcome,

Firstly, what ESA are you claiming? Is it Income Related or Contributions/New style ESA? The money you took from your pension will be classed as savings so i'm assuming your ESA is Income Related or at least part of it is?

Are you also receiving a weekly payment from your pension or you just received the lump sum?

When you say "rates" are you talking about council tax reduction?

williammcm

Thank you for your reply. I was on ESA income related now changed to contribution. I don’t receive anything from my private pension I just took the lump sum to pay off bills. The rate are council rates on my home. I live in Belfast. 

Many thanks. 

poppy123456

That will be because what you received from your pension was more than £16,000 so you weren't entitled to any means tested benefits.

Although you now only have less than £2,000 paying your grandchildrens school fees will be classed as deprivation of capital and you'll still be classed as having that money.

If it was just the arrears you paid on your mortgage and you can prove that the amount you paid needed to be paid otherwise your home would have been repossessed then this should be ok but you'll need to send evidence to DFC and your local council.

If you paid off any other debts that weren't immediately repayable then this will be classed as deprivation of capital and so will giving any other money away.

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

Tori_Scope

Hi @williammcm I hope the above advice has helped. Just so you know, I've moved your post into the ESA category.