So DWP sent a letter to my mum asking for updates regarding her ESA claim, she already gets enhanced PIP. We filled out the form and sent it back to them and now they have wrote back saying that she wasn’t entitled to ESA since 2013 since my dad works 35 hours a week. They aren’t married so she relies on her own money and this has been cut by half. What can be done about this, these circumstances haven’t changed in 23 years. What really annoys me is shes so depressed that she can’t work and then they tell her she cant even have her own money. What a disgusting way DWP want the desperately sick. Shameful.
If they are a couple and living in the same house, they will be regarded as a JOINT income and savings. So likely that if your dad earns they expect him to contribute to household.
The ESA claim is completely seperate from PIP and won’t beaffectd one way or the other.
However, be careful, depending on where you live and other factors, she could be pushed into applying for Universal Credit. And THAT is a whole different can of worms,
If she was claiming income based ESA, then the decision, hard as it seems, is correct according to DWP rules about couples who live together. But if she was claiming contributions based ESA (ie based on the National Insurance paid in the two financial years prior to her initial claim), then she should still be entitled as it is not based on your or your partners income (apart from private or occupational pensions).
If the latter is the case, I suggest she gets some advice from the Citizens Advice Bureau and appeal against the decision. But if it’s the former, and a correct decision, then there’s likely to be a huge overpayment. Again, get some help from the CAB to discuss this.
Sue