ESA and State Pension

I'm a bit confused by a recent letter from the ESA team.

I currently receive around £230 per week in ESA. I've now received two letters telling me that from a date next month, my ESA payment will be £140 a week.

The reduction isn't surprising, since my state pension comes into payment on that date. What puzzles me is why there's any ESA payment at all.

When the first letter arrived I assumed it was a single payment to cover the period between ESA entitlement ending and state pension entitlement starting. That would make sense.

But I've now had a letter telling me that this reduced weekly amount will increase after April, which is well after state pension payments begin. (I've informed them that I've claimed the pension, by the way.)

I don't want to get into an overpayments situation, I can't hear well on the phone, and they never reply to letters. I wondered if anyone had any experience with this, please? Thank you.

Thanks for that, David. I won't be able to hear them properly on the phone, so I guess I'll just have to wait and see what happens.

I suspect they don't intend to carry on paying ESA, and what you say about auto-generated letters is useful because it suggests the latest letter is just auto-generated nonsense.

Thanks again.