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Disability premium and esa claims
I have a couple of clients who have large HB overpayments because they were getting full HB with SSP paid with a disability premium because of a dla award. When the ssp ended they claimed esa and lost their disability premium and it has been several weeks before they were awarded a support addition. Amended HB regs Sch 3 para 13(9) says - ‘the claimant is not entitled to the disability premium if the claimant has, or is treated as having, limited capability for work’. The CPAG handbook defines this as being from an esa claim being made but does anyone think here are any grounds for arguing that this should only apply form the end of the assessment period?
I don’t think you can get a Disability Premium in HB when the HB claimant is on Cont based ESA. But why are the overpayments recoverable? If the claimants told the LA that they had switched from SSP to ESA it’s the LAs fault if they included a Disability Premium in the calculation.
I have a couple of options in both these cases to challenge the overpayment but it will be helpful for other claims to be able to argue that they were wrong to cut the disability premium in the asessment phase where DLA is in payment.
There is (I believe) no prospect of a disability premium applying to the ESA assessment phase - unless your ESA claimant has a partner who’s not on ESA. In that case the LA should have advised that the HB claim be switched to the partner, and the disability premium would then have applied (i.e. because the new HB claimant’s partner has DLA). It may or may not be advantageous to switch back at week 13, depending on exact circs.
Another point: if an ESA claimant has a terminal condition (asks for DS1500 to apply), then there should be no 13 week wait before the support component is applied.
It might just be because it’s still early, but how have they been overpaid? Surely when their income reduces to the assessment phase rate of ESA they still get full HB?
One is part of a couple with partner getting icb and dla and I am going down the should have changed claimants route with them. The trouble is the end of ssp was June - we’ll see how hb responds. The other is single and should have gone straight onto support component and I am arguing this with esa. On previous liklihood though she’s likely to be long dead before we get anywhere with them. I was exploring the disability premium during esa assessment route as an alternative. Reg 30 of ESA regs appears to scupper any argument as it states that you are treated as having limited capability for work until a determination is made but I was sort of hoping that as the language is so Orwellesque there might be a way round.
It might just be because it’s still early, but how have they been overpaid? Surely when their income reduces to the assessment phase rate of ESA they still get full HB?
That’s what i’m thinking….how have they been overpaid?
Couple claimant has her icb which takes them over iresa. They immediately lost about £30 a week hb. Single claimant had some residual work income.