NI credits

No, I HAVE already made the HB claim after she told me I could claim HB (and not UC) because I was "eligible". The day after I'd made my HB claim she e-mailed me to say she was wrong, I had to be in "receipt" and therefore had to now claim UC. Hence, my last post to you arguing this on technical grounds...that she should pay the penalty of advising me incorrectly, not me.

9th Dec: The HB team leader's e-mail on the 9th Dec (which was also sent as a letter) told me I COULD claim HB because I was "eligible" for the SDP.
10th Dec: I claimed HB online on the 10th Dec.
11th Dec: She e-mailed me (without sending a duplicate letter in the post) telling me she was extremely sorry, that she should've checked more thoroughly, but that I had to be "in receipt" of the SDP and therefore I had to claim UC - "To be able to claim Housing benefit now you need to be recieving the severe Disability Premium in ESA within the last month. As you are not currently in receipt of ESA you must claim Universal Credit.". So no, no letter of this 'decision' on my HB claim.

To be clear, having more than £16,000 means your ESA and HB claims were closed not suspended so any re-claim will be as new claims.

Are you absolutely certain they should be “closed”, not “suspended”? Earlier this year, I had googled disability websites and forums etc, and I kept reading that I needed to ask that ESA keep my claim open. I also encountered a local lady who had been in my situation 9 years ago, and she didn’t know to ask ESA to keep her claim open whilst she lived off her capital, but they volunteered this information to her and did keep her claim open so that at the end of the year when her capital depleted to £16,000 she didn’t have to make a new ESA claim but they reopened her existing claim and continued paying her. That’s why in my May letter, and subsequent letters, I keep referring to that I’d asked for my ESA claim to remain open. Is this possibility now definitely not in use because of changes to ESA and UC being introduced?

I finally received a reply letter from ESA in December saying that "[they] can confirm that [my] ESA claim has remained "live" from [May] (when my capital increased above £16,000), and have continued to receive NI credits".