ESA Award Letters - Ambiguity on whether award is Contribution Based or Income Related and impact on migration

Whilst I am reluctant to disagree with HB I must say that to the best of my recollection IS managed to set al this out in an explicable way

I’ve just had a meeting with a DWP official about the problem with ESA letters - he agreed that it was a big problem and that they need to be clear at the top of the letter whether the award is contributory, income-related or both.

He has promised to take this away and look into it as a high priority. However, he did add that the system is 30 years old and it is not always easy to sort fixes so there are no promises!!

To help him look into it, he would really like examples of any ESA awards letters - could be uprating ones, initial ones, change of circs etc. The more examples the better, so would be great for any you can send me some - they can be fully redacted in respect of claimant details but ideally should have all pages.

You can email me direct - .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) - thank you!

ESA was introduced, for new claims, in October 2008.  That’s less than 15 years ago, not 30.

Although I understand the difficulty of changing systems that have run for 15 years, it could be said that DWP has had 15 years in which to perfect their system.

Sorry I wasn’t very clear - he meant the computer systems that they’re running on are 30 years old - the legacy benefit systems.

But I agree it’s ridiculous that 15 years on there are still such basic problems and I did say that in our meeting - he didn’t disagree!

Just bumping this to put out a plea for any example anonymised ESA letters that i can send to DWP - thanks for those already received.

Email me at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)

I’ve seen one that is really confusing and really bad. It states that the person gets both Conts and IR-ESA. But the calculation is laid out in a nonsensical way, and when you do the maths there would in fact be no entitlement to IR-ESA based on the circumstances stated on the letter. There is entitlement if all the premiums that should be included are included. Baffling.

If you can get hold of a copy to anonymise and send me that would be great Sarah