Conversion case

I need to run this by you all to see if there’s anything I’ve overlooked.
 
My client (married with kids and husband not working) was in receipt of ICB and IS since June 2006.  In September 2012 fails conversion.  Appeals, and tribunal, July 2013, allows appeal and puts her in the support group.  In September 2013 her husband starts full time work.  However, DWP do not pay her Con/ESA but pay IR/ESA despite being informed of her husband starting work.  I write to them.  They don’t respond.  I’ve now had sight of the latest award breakdown which makes no sense to me whatsoever.  Just before the breakdown it is sub-headed:

“The payment of ESA is based on your NI conts and any additional amount the law says you need to live on”.

There is no reference to Con/ESA in the breakdown and none of the figures quoted match up to it.  There is a figure used as income which does not reflect her husband’s wages (not mentioned either) with a puzzling figure used as a disregard.  Now, obviously, she shouldn’t be on IR/ESA as her husband works full time.  And, provided I haven’t missed the blindingly obvious, as she won her appeal, her award of ICB converts into one of Con/ESA.  There has been no break in her claim nor any other irregularities which should interfere with the tribunal’s decision to overturn the original (non) conversion decision.  My instinct is that the DWP have not acted on the information about her husband starting work but what I want to know, before I fire off a letter to the DWP, is there anything I’ve overlooked regarding the conversion decision and her current position with regard to Con/ESA.

Since the DWP cut and paste letters often make no sense, have you rang them to confirm that her claim is actually contribution based??

If the appeal took over 365 days then she may have been transferred to IRESA (and not converted back to CBESA following tribunal award?), however if so it dont explain how she is still getting paid when there is any other money coming in.

Ive seen some daft ones, such as the standard “You have been found not to have limited capability for work and are therefore not entitled to Employment and support allowance. We will pay you £101 a week Employment and support allowance. You will need to attend work focussed interviews…..blah blah blah.

I’ve also seen some very obscure ESA award letters (often indicating no CB ESA when we know it is payment, or indicating both CB and IR ESA is in payment when we know it isn’t as well as gobbeldygook figures that don’t tie in to anything). Trouble is, you can rarely get much sense out of the contact centre if you ring them as they don’t understand the difference between CB and IR ESA either.

I think you should fire off a letter as per your original post Nevip and see what comes of it.

I represented at the actual conversion appeal and have the papers.  It was clearly an ICB and IS award and the appeal was 9 months after the conversion decision so the time limiting was never an issue, particularly as the tribunal put her straight into the support group.

Thanks everyone.  That’s added clarity.