Hi there, There's been a problem with my application for ill-health retirement and my union is appealing for me. Having told me last July it would be a 6-8 week process, 1st stage wasn't submitted until October, and lawyer appeal only gone in this week.
In the meantime I've been paying my mortgage out of my benefits, have no savings, and am therefore living on half what even the DWP thinks I need. Not exactly sustainable.
My union rep has suggested I apply to the union welfare fund for some help. I am on IR ESA. My query is, say fund gave me 2 months mortgage payments, would the DWP see that as income and so take it straight off my ESA, or would it count as savings (which would still be less than £1k let alone the £6k threshold)? When they did my initial assessment for IR ESA the decision maker literally calclated it week by week from claim date until started paying 4 months later, which meant each 2 weeks when I got my ESA paid she reduced my benefit for the following week! Thank you for your help.
