ESA error/clawback from 2023, WCA 6 weeks before retirement, general DWP chaos

I have been in receipt of ESA since 2015, and reach state retirement age on 29 September this year. The DWP have been hassling me endlessly all year after they discovered that, due to their error back in September 2023, they have not been counting my husband's state retirement pension as income, and as a result have messed up my entitlement.

I'm fighting with them to send me the Severe Disability Premium they tell me I have been entitled to since September 2023, for which I was sent a form early this year to complete for my claim, and which at least 4 telephone staff assured me I am due and will receive, with a backdated payment of around £7000 due to me according to them. However, during an unexpected telephone call from DWP some months ago I was told that the Premium due to me has now been used to offset most of the overpayment, and they are also taking money off me weekly to pay back the balance they insist I still owe them.

A friend whose partner is a former DWP employee sent me actual DWP information that states any claw back due to DWP error can only be made from New Style ESA, but mine is the original ESA. Speaking recently to another DWP rep who rang me, she confirmed that DWP's ability to claw back overpayment depends on the date of my ESA claim start, and acknowledged that my ESA is the original ESA not New Style, and that New Style ESA didn't come into force until 7 December 2016, after my ESA award started. To quote from DWP's own rules: "Official Error 1.25 Official Error overpayments can be caused by an error or omission by an officer of the Department for Work and Pensions, These overpayments that fall to be determined under S71 of the Social Security Administration Act 1992, are routinely classified as Official Error, where the overpayment (or part of it) is not as a result of a failure to disclose or misrepresentation by the claimant but instead as a result of a departmental error arising under an award of benefit. 1.26 Such overpayments are not recoverable under social security legislation."

I have received numerous letters from DWP this year about my entitlement, and as always they are difficult for me to understand and vague. I've even received (recentl) two letters printed and sent a day apart giving wildly different amounts of entitlement. The whole situation is exhausting to deal with. My husband having to go back to work in order for us to survive financially (he is 68 and disabled) for 15 hours/week has complicated matters and despite us keeping DWP informed at every step they are still making a total hash of my ESA entitlement.

In April I received no ESA payments at all, and this was apparently due to DWP working out what they referred to as a 'substantial sum' due to be issued to me for backdated Severe Disability Premium. Quite why they felt that it was OK to withhold my ESA entirely while they did their sums over the SDP is something I simply can't understand. The situation cased me huge distress and anxiety not to mention problems making regular bill payments, including rent. And as always with DWP there was no acknowledgement or apology offered. Not only that, but the DWP informed my local council that my ESA claim had ended, so the council stopped my Housing Benefit. The council wrote to me about this but the DWP didn't bother. Thankfully, after speaking to a very sympathetic Council rep she made what she called a 'manual check' and told me that she could see that my ESA claim had not ended, so my HB was reinstated, though of course delayed.

Three letters of complaint sent to DWP this year remain unacknowledged and unanswered. Yesterday I received a letter from Health Assessment Advisory Service (HAAS) to undergo a telephone Work Capability assessment on 19th August - 6 weeks before I reach state retirement age and my ESA claim will cease anyway. This makes absolutely zero sense and will be a waste of everyone's time. The letter states that I must take the call, no alternative dates were offered. It's state bullying IMO, and I'm simply not up to taking the call, but I don't know what I can do about it.

Regarding the 2023 DWP error resulting in overpayment, I'm simply hitting a brick wall as DWP don't listen to anything I say and are now refusing to accept that I am owed anything anyway, despite other telephone staff telling me earlier in the year not to worry about the overpayment error, as DWP can't claw back the Severe Disability Premium I'm owed to cover their error. A particularly odious member of the DWP staff, who has rung me twice this year without any warning (which always stresses me out) and during the first call chuckled throughout, told me when I challenged him that DWP is not clawing back the SDP due to me in order to cover their error, they have simply 'adjusted' the figures! I got the dinstinct feeling that he was literally laughing at me.

I'm concerned that once my ESA claim ends DWP will refuse to even consider repaying the money they owe me for the backdatd SDP, and can no longer cope with this situation on my own. Any advice or suggestions on any of the above would be most

As well as getting help from a Welfare Rights organisation I wonder if getting your MP involved may be of help.

Three letters of complaint left unanswered is not acceptable never mind all the other issues going on relating to your claim. Also perhaps he/she could intervene with the Work Capabiity Assessment which seems ridiculous considering you are so close to being a pensioner.
I wish you all the very best getting this mess sorted out.

Gaddy