ESA - Severe Disability element

I am after some advice please. I am my daughter’s appointee she is 18 years old and disabled. She receives ESA which she has received since the aged of 16, I made the application over the phone at the time. Today she has had a benefit check from our local council as she is being financially assessed for support services. It came to light during this assessment that she has been receiving the severe disability element of ESA and she is not entitled to it . The guy from the council advised that she would only receive this if she was living alone . When I made the claim I advised them that she lives with me and I am unsure where or how they have added this extra premium? Nowhere on my award letter does it say anything about living alone hence why I have never picked this up I thought they would have also had this clarified this from the DLA (she has received it since she was a child ) . I’m so upset and worried about this .
They have advised they are going to stall her benefits until this is sorted but im anxious incase they think I have fraudulently claimed this money also worried about how we will have to pay this all back approx. £ 6000 . Any advice would be great
Thanks

Hi mum,

I'm sorry that you are having such a worrying time

Yes, the ESA premiums are usually only paid if the claimant lives alone. I say 'usually' are there are exceptions - if the claimant is living with a child under the age of 18, for instance.

ESA Premiums

I suggest that you try to get face2face advice from sometime trained in Welfare issues as this is not the kind of thing you want to get wrong!

If this is proven to be an official error it might not be repayable. Otherwise, you should be able to negotiate terms that you can afford.

There is no need to submit your query more than once. Even when the forum is officially open it can take some time for mods to get around to your message. Outside of these times we are not guaranteed to be on-line at all, even though we do look in when we can. I will delete your duplicate post so that all replies are kept in the same place for you.

Thanks for your reply . I submitted it twice in error as i didnt realise it had sent .

When you say if the claimant is living with a child under the age of 18, for instance could this be my other child her sister ?
Thanks