‘We don’t pay LCWRA as you get an occupational pension’

Claimant is disabled long-term , was migrated from IB to ESA and, oddly enough, has just had the letter about ESA underpayments!

Support Group CESA.  Occupational pension below the £85 limit.

Migrated to UC owing to house-move.

LCWRA not paid.

Reason 1 given: ‘It’s because you’ve got an occupational pension’.

Client challenged this.

Reason 2: ‘ESA pays you the Support Group so we do not add this in to your calculation. If you were not getting ESA we would pay you LCWRA’.

To borrow my friend’s expression yet again…..GAD!!!!!!!!!

Update - UC sent the claimant this message yesterday-

‘We pay you:-
Standard Allowance - £317.82
Housing Allowance - £239.13
ESA pay you - £110.75 (£73.10 PA & £37.65 LCWRA.
We can not pay you twice for your LCWRA. £110.75 x 52 weeks divided by 12 months = £479.92 less your Occupational Pension £294.55. Nills your UC award.’

We have sent in a new complaint: meanwhile, the claimant reports, the Journal message from UC has been deleted.

It would be rather more appropriate to send a new message admitting the error, correcting it and apologising - instead they scrub the record.

This is wrong in so many ways.