ESA & permitted work letter.

Hi all, I hope you can answer my query.

I claimed ESA last November because I was told I could claim CB ESA. (I have always worked full time but developed Rheumatoid Arthritis , pleurisy and other lung problems). At the time I worked 15 hours PW and lady at Job centre said that it was fine as would be classed as permitted work.. I was put on mid term SG and told it would be until roughly Feb.

In Aug I received a letter asking "why hadn't I informed them of my part-time work"? and about a lump sum amount from a company called prudential??? (I don't have a prudential account) I phoned them in tears and to be fair to them they phoned me back within the hour and said there was nothing on my account to say anything about prudential.

I filled in the form about permitted work again and sent off. including all my pay slips. I received a reply to say my working hours and pay was fine as would come under "permitted work" and confirming there was nothing about Prudential and that my money would stay the same i.e. CB SG..

I have now received another letter asking about the hours I work and to send pay slips again etc, nothing has changed, I only work my permitted hours. This letter is from a different handling site, the first one was Wolverhampton handling site A this one site B, would that make any difference?

This is causing me no end of stress & anxiety, so basically (after my rant sorry) my questions are

can one handling site not know what the other is doing?
Is it normal to have to fill in the same form and info 8 weeks apart?

Thanks for any advice, info although I will ring them tomorrow

Hi Gordon,

Thanks for your reply.

Yes I am under the £131.50 threshold and they have sent me a letter to say that my work is permitted and my money won't change.

I spoke to them this morning about the new form, he couldn't tell me why a new form had been sent, he could see what was sent 8 weeks ago. He said just don't fill the form in!! I asked for that in writing as I didn't want to get into trouble for not replying. He said let me check with my supervisor, well it's a good job he did because supervisor said send the form back not filled in with a covering note, otherwise I would have been in trouble for not replying.!!!! I did say in the note that their mistakes cause a lot of needless stress to people, I don't think they will listen tho

Thanks for all the good work and advice you all give