Incapacity Stopped with no warning.

[patrickq1]

its incredilous that they have been allowed to get this far with it but seems the general public aint too interested ,but its another question to put towards the medical ethics commision me thinks gotta crawl under their skin to get them to change this idiotic plan thank you mr h**n scumbag frqaudster,at least he cannot make anymore decisions
patrickq1

[Kerrie78]

Just an update, we finally got an Income support payment of £116 for the last 2 weeks, and they are going to pay us £80 ish each Thursday for IS aswell. That I think has the reduction on it, but the letter is all A$$e about face and I cant really make head nor tail of it!

Still, at least we have a bit of cash now, and the CAB are filling out all our forms tomorrow.

[Kerrie78]

Hi again.
After receiving a £80 credit to the bank last Thursday I wake up and check the bank this morning to find nothing.
No Income Support, No Child Tax Credit. I have just spoken on the phone to tax credits to be told that as they overpaid us in 2006/7 we are getting no more until April 4th. They have also passed this info on to Income Support (who I'm on the phone to at present), so that makes us ineligible for Income Support, so thats why that didn't pay us any this morning.

this has got to be some kind of bad joke. I have emailed my MP again this morning, as I havent heard anythignfrom her since January 25th, to give her an update on the circumstances.
What can I do know. Tax Credits wont give us any more info, they will call us back at some point in the next 2 weeks, but until then its Tough basically.
So yet again I am in receipt of nothing.

[alibobsy]

I don't understand how tax credits recovering an overpayment out of their own benefit can disallow your income support? If entitlement to child tax credit is necessary surely you still have entitlement just a "nil" award as it is being fully recovered against the overpayment. Plus why has it taken so long for them to say there is an overpayment from 06/07?
Hope the MP can get to the bottom of it.
Good Luck
ali x

[loan_ranger]

I understand that the Local Authority has a statutory obligation to help out families with CHILDREN when DWP/JCP non-payment is endangering their health and safety (perhaps this only applies to housing?). I've no experience in this area, therefore I can only guess that you'd have to contact the Council's children's services and explain that you can't even afford to put food on the table for the kids and yourselves. I don't even know where in the legislation this L.A. obligation comes from - it would be best if you can speak to a competent welfare rights worker ASAP.

I'm shocked that I.S. and C.T.C. were stopped so abruptly without them allowing you to make-good the debt by affordable instalments deducted from benefits over a longer period of time. Seems to me that "the powers that be" have no qualms about persecuting people!
Another thing which seems odd - is stopping I.S. simply because C.T.C. payment has been "deferred", and I choose this word, because it shouldn't be classed as stopped, it's more like them using your fortnightly payments (until April 4th) in order to repay the debt back to themselves - therefore C.T.C. is still being paid, only not into your bank. In any case, C.T.C. is for your children and I.S. is for you and your husband, they are separate benefits targeting different needs, moreover I'm not aware of C.T.C. being a qualifying "gateway" benefit for I.S. I can only conjecture that they've decided to recover the C.T.C. overpayment out of both benefits.

You can try for a Crisis Loan but remember that "debts to government dept's." are excluded, therefore the loan will be for "living expenses to avoid serious damage or risk to the health or safety of the applicant or a member of the family". If you're likely to be without any other source of income for the next 7 weeks then you ought to apply for (in the region of) £1300 and ask to repay this over the maximum time allowed - which is 102 weeks @ £12.75 per week. The maximum permitted (cumulative total) amount of Social Fund debt is £1500, so you might as well ask for this because they'll more than likely cut down any amount which you ask for. Also remember that the "discretionary social fund" budget is a fixed and exhaustible annual amount, sometimes awards are refused because they've simply already spent it all.

Sorry that I can't be more help, I really feel for you. I just got my I.B.50 medical questionnaire (yesterday) and this is usually the pre-cursor to the dreaded examination c/o "Atos Origin". Given that David Freud, (the investment banker the government employs as their adviser on welfare reform) has been "spouting-off" to the media that he thinks that 2/3 of I.B. claimants shouldn't be entitled, it fills me with anxiety for my future and the prospect of poverty pending an appeal to get my I.B. re-instated. If I can get signed-off for a few more years then I might be able to train as a welfare rights adviser with the CAB and be of more help in the future.
L.R.

[Kerrie78]

When I rang the Income Support person this morning, she said that because CTC had informed them of an overpayment, it had automatically triggered a stop on the Income Support. She has sent us a giro to cover todays missed payment so hopefully we should receive that tomorrow, then they will continue at the £80 a week as we had been informed last week.

But with regards to CTC we basically have to wait for somebody to call back within the next 2 weeks.
I too, hope that the MP can sort this out because I seriously cannot dal with it anymore. I am just passed from pillar to ost, and when you finally think you have got things sorted out, something else goes wrong.
The whole damn system needs a mighty good shake up.

[loan_ranger]

I've got a nasty feeling that the £80 I.S. might be the reduced weekly amount for you and your partner together. (I'll try checking this c/o rightsnet - where I think I saw a document stating the applicable amounts for singles, couples etc.) You could also phone-up and get some clarification regarding the amount of the award from DWP/JCP in order to help determine your needs for a loan from the Social Fund.

Anyhow, I'll get back to you in a few hours (or sooner) because nobody could reasonably expect your family to manage avoiding damaging their health and safety without a Crisis Loan.

[loan_ranger]

Income Support Personal allowances


Couple:
Both aged 18 and over: £92.80



Ask for a Crisis Loan for £700

[Kerrie78]

Oh sorry lone ranger, the amount of £80 is because we are getting IS at a reduced rate, they have taken 20% off because we are in an appeal over the IB stopping without good reason. I have read somewhere that if you are awaiting operations, as my hubby is, then they cannot remove you from IB, but my hubby has been.
Currently his GP has written an appeal letter on our behalf, and the CAB has filled out all of our paperwork for us, and they are looking in to it, but while they consider the appeal, te IS is reduced, and if the appeal is successful then we will no coubt receive the backdated amount.

Thank you for checking that out though.

[loopylouy]

My incapacity was stopped in november, i am still fighting for it and have been told I am to wait at least another month.
When it was stopped i got a crisis payment (which i have to repay), I live alone and as with you struggle muchly to pay any bills, I can just about sort food, its a nightmare!

[Kerrie78]

Hi again.
Just to say I am still struggling. After lengthy discussions with CTC they said that our payments stopped because we have already received the maximum award for this tax year.
A while ago we had bank trouble (due to charges) and we moved banks. For over 8 weeks CTC still paid us into our bank account, and eventually I got to speak to a team leader who stopped the bank payments and issued giros instead. He sent us a covering letter saying that due to the error, here is a breakdown of what we will get - we continued to receive these paper giros for several months because it took them absolutely donkeys years to get our new bank details up and running.
Now also, to my horror, they inform me that our maximum entitlement was £6,000 for the year, but infact they have paid us £12,000. I have no idea where they get this 12 grand from because for the majority of weeks I reckon we got about £105 per week, then while the bank error thing was going on they were paying £350 per week to cover the missed payments.

How can they have overpaid us by £6,000??? We gave correct info to them at every possible point of the way. How on earth am I going to pay this back,

We are in receipt of £80 still each week for the 5 of us, we have had no CTC for the last 3 weeks now and look to get none for the next 4 either. Also, when the new tax year starts, will they continue to withhold our CTC because of this so called overpayment.

I cant believe what a mess all this is. I have also applied for a crisis loan but as I expected, we were declined due to our IS of £80 per week.

[alibobsy]

I think I would write to CTC or call again if you feel up to it. I would want a full written breakdown of how/when you were overpaid. They weren't still sending payments to your closed bank account whilst issuing giros were they? If the over payment is their fault (perhaps they did a manual calculation to do those giro payments?) they should write it off as their error, but looking at some of the many threads on CTC and the problems people have had with overpayments you will have to fight to get it sorted sorry!
Our tax credit was witheld for 2 years because of an overpayment, but our weekly rate is only around £30 due to earnings. Surely if you are on IS they can't withold the lot. Maybe it will restart in april but at a reduced rate? Have you had any documentation regarding the overpayment from them yet.
Good luck
ali x

[Kerrie78]

No I havent had anything in writing, just a form called TC846 to say why we disagree with their decision.
They sent us an initial breakdown of what we should receive, but to be honest we have had so many adjustments even they themselves struggle to comprehend what has gone on with it. I am on hold for ages each time I call whilst they look through the screen.
I think it's another trip up the CAB to deal with this

[patrickq1]

Disability Equality Duty
HAVE A READ AT THIS KERRIE SEE IF THEY ARE ABIDING BY THE RULES,AND IF NOT THEN THE DISABILITY DISCRIMINATION ACT CAN BE BROUGHT INTO PLAY
PATRICKQ1

[loan_ranger]

Hi Ali,

Do you have much info on the new employment support allowance. I only got some general info and an overview before I left, but it would appear to have even more of a "push them back into work" mentality behind it. Will people on here appeal their IB and hopefully win only to get transferred to the new benefit and start again. I hadn't seen any info on what happens to existing customers or the new benefit rates. Would be interested to know

Sorry to have taken so long to reply, however my "RADAR" was telling me that there would be further changes coming soon to the implementation of ESA (Employment and Support Allowance, Ali knows these acronyms but some newbies won't). Furthermore, the 2007 Welfare Reform Act only outlines the general principals, however much of the detail has been conspicuously vague e.g. benefit rates and the timetables for implementation of the reforms, I know that I'm not the first commentator to have said that it's legislation 'worked out on the back of an envelope', but that's how modern politics operates. So, I wasn't surprised when this was announced in the Budget.
LR

[alibobsy]

Hmm interesting. Not good news for people on Incapacity benefit then. How can you set a target for getting people of the benefit? There are people who can never work as they are either so physically or mentally disabled that it would not be possible and I doubt this would effect them, but what about those with physical and mental issues which makes it very impractical for them to work. Even now I had seen claims for people, particularly with diagnosed mental issues being forced onto JSA and both we and the job centre staff know they will never be able to hold down a job even if you can find an employer who would take them on. If they were serious about "helping" people into work as opposed to "forcing" them they would need to put more money into support for the disabled. One thing we often discussed at work was a way to simplify the benefit system. The reason why you got a minority claiming IB when they could work was because it had higher rates (at least when long term claims kicked in). We always said all the benefits should be at a set rate all the same then the DLA rates should be greatly increased. Target the money to those who really need it. Recently though the push from above is not to target benefit to those who need it or help people back to work. It is a definate push em off benefit drive which seems to be hitting those who really need the money and are genuine. Meanwhile fraud budgets and staff have been drastically cut so actually making it easier to defraud the department. All the government seem interested in now is the bottom line of costs rather than ensuring what money is paid out is paid correctly. The amount of accuracy checking our claims went through was also cut due to staff cuts.
ali x