NI credits

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?

ESA(IR) claims have always been closed when the claimant is no longer entitled but it used to be the case that providing the claimant still had Limited Capability for Work then the DWP would accept a new claim without a problem.

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

I hadn't been using the language of "ESA NI claim"...just asking them to keep my ESA claim open (and as a separate, to continue paying my NI contributions - keeping my ESA claim open so that my NI contributions could continue be paid was obviously necessary, but more important was keeping my ESA claim open so that I didn't have to do a new claim from scratch/claim UC when my capital went back down to £16,000).

So yes, THANK GOODNESS I persevered with first trying to get a reply from ESA before going ahead and claiming UC (for housing costs, and 'ESA')!!!

(Sorry about the double copy of post - I'd thought my first one didn't get through to B&W. You can delete the first one if you want).

HB are still unfortunately making me jump through hoops. You know when you're sure you know the laws/rules and your rights, yet because the DWP or Council are making you jump through ridiculous hoops to prove things you start questioning your knowledge!

My first question (for ESA and HB) is: how are they supposed to calculate the deduction from our capital? I know it's £1 deducted for every £250 of capital I have per WEEK, but how are they supposed to work that amount out if my capital depletes during each month? They know from my bank statement that I provided both ESA and HB that my capital depletes by a set amount once a month (and they will obviously divide that monthly depletion amount by 4 weeks). I have an amount from ESA and HB (which are different amounts) that they're deducting per week and I can't figure out yet how they got it?

Let me clarify more specifically: I decided to keep my capital in a separate bank account and withdraw once a month the same specific amount (which equated to the total of my ESA, HB and Council Tax reduction). The bank statement I provided both ESA and HB is of this account and there are not other transactions except for this monthly withdrawal of this same amount. I informed both ESA and HB of this in my first letters of May when my capital first went over £16,000, that this pattern would continue. In December I informed them both again with an updated bank statement now showing the evidence of this pattern continuing on a monthly basis since May.

So how did they calculate the weekly amount for the capital tariff they've both given me (which are different to each others yet I am the same claimant with the same amount of capital!?) when the capital decreases every month on an ongoing basis?