ESA-Moved from IB to CB-Loss of Medical Costs-

Client was in receipt of IB ESA, This has now changed to CB ESA as the DWP state he is better off by 19p a week on CB ESA. However this has seen him lose his “help with medical costs”. He also lost his COL payment.

He wants to appeal this.  The DWP state that they can move him from IB to CB if CB pays more and he has no choice in this.

Any help?

Sounds odd. Could you give a bit more info about his circumstances? is he in the support group?

Hello. Thanks for the reply.

He is in the SG. He also receives PIP and the SDA premium. He has a Armed Forces Service. It appears that when his AF Pension increased this saw his award reassessed.

The process is that you claim ESA as one benefit. Your entitlement to a contributory allowance is assessed and then your entitlement to an income-related allowance is assessed. Your contributory allowance is deducted from any income-related allowance which you might otherwise be paid.

Presumably he has always received cESA but with an irESA topup, however on the most recent calculation his cESA is either equal to or more than any irESA he would be entitled to so he just gets the cESA. This probably relates to his pension being taken into account in full as income for irESA but not for cESA.

He can’t meaningfully appeal the calculation unless it is wrong in some respect. There is no argument in relation to the ‘move’ to cESA because this is just a consequence of everything working properly. You would however want to check the calculation to ensure it is correct and that relevant premiums are in place.

The health costs part can be resolved by applying for help with health costs on a means tested basis (https://www.nhsbsa.nhs.uk/nhs-low-income-scheme). Not so for the cost of living payment unfortunately.

It looks to me like your client was originally entitled to both CBESA (presumably because he met the contribution conditions and was also in the support group)and IRESA (because his total income fell below the applicable amount for IRESA). Where that happens both allowances are paid but the IRESA element is the difference between the CBESA amount and the IRESA applicable amount. The rise in his pension together with the CBESA presumably took him over the IRESA applicable amount so he lost his entitlement to IRESA. He retains his CBESA, because that is not based on his income. To describe this as moving someone from IRESA to CBESA is rather misleading. He has always been entitled to CBESA but has lost the IRESA top-up because his total non-means-tested income has gone up.