ESA query

[KullyS]

Hi all,

 

I am posting on behalf of my brother who has learning difficulties. He has been receiving ESA and DLA over the last 4 years. The benefit is automatically paid into his bank account.

My brother is 30 years old however his learning difficulty is such that his mental age is probably 7/8. He cannot read or write, or understand danger, signs etc. My parents or I do everything for him.

He does not manage his own bank accounts, we do this all for him.

His money has only even been used when I cannot afford to pay for anything for him, my mother always thought that because he does not work, he will need something when they cannot support him anymore, both my parents are at pension age.

I would ask for his money to be paid into a savings account. This has now built up to £25,000, bearing in mind that he does not have funds leaving his account and my parents and I pay for everything that he needs.

I also was not aware that you were not allowed to receive ESA once the savings reach £16000. This has been the case for the last three years.

I cannot continue to support him and neither can my parents as I now have my own dependents. He is currently sleeping in my 3 year old daughters room, or room sharing.

I understand that we will need to pay back the last three years of overpayment. What will happen to his ESA?

Can I spend the money on converting the loft area as his bedroom? He cannot bath or shave on his own and my father does this, can I spend some on a shower room?

 

We need to present our statements to the job centre next week. I am extremely stressed thinking about what may happen. I have personally never claimed benefits and I had no idea regarding the rules.

 

I understand that we should have spent his money on him and not used ours. I do not have any savings.

 

What are our options and what can happen? We do not have anything to hide and just made a mistake which he will be penalised for.

 

Would it be beneficial exhaling this to the job centre? Will they ask for the overpayment as one lump sum? Will my brother still receive his ESA once this has been resolved? That is my main worry, if he stops receiving his benefits, I cannot continue to support him. Paying back the overpayment will bring him back down to around £5000.

 

Any advice would be recommended?

[honeybee13]

Hello and welcome to CAG. I'm sorry to hear you're having problems.

 

The forum guys should be along later, some of them know about benefit overpayments. Please bear with us until they're able to get here.

 

My best, HB

[Nystagmite]

There's no rule as such as to what you can spend your savings on; but you couldn't, for example, spend the money on an expensive holiday and then expect to get benefits. If this was me, I'd get it writing whether it was ok. You need to keep receipts for things like a shower room and other expensive things. (general day to day expenses such as clothes, food, etc, you don't need to keep receipts for)

 

His DLA won't be affected; as this is paid purely on care and /or mobility needs and has nothing to do with any capital he has.

[KullyS]

Thank you for the reply.

 

I think I will need to write a covering letter when handing in the statements explaining why it has reached the amount it has and why we are spending some of it on what is needed. I blame myself fo this mess, I genuinely thought I was doing the right thing.

 

Can they say because you have supported him, he does not need the DLA or ESA? I cannot continue to support him now that I have my own babies.

[honeybee13]

Thank you for the reply.

 

I think I will need to write a covering letter when handing in the statements explaining why it has reached the amount it has and why we are spending some of it on what is needed. I blame myself fo this mess, I genuinely thought I was doing the right thing.

 

Can they say because you have supported him, he does not need the DLA or ESA? I cannot continue to support him now that I have my own babies.

 

It sounds to me as if you've done your very best for your brother, he's lucky that you want to support him. I think you should continue to tell the truth. Hopefully before you deal with the DWP, other people who are more knowledgeable than me will have commented.

 

Nystagmite knows their stuff too.

 

HB

[Nystagmite]

No, they can't say that. He is paid ESA because he can't work. He (if he's on full income based ESA) will only not be paid any ESA if he either has a working partner or has savings over £16,000. The only criteria for DLA is that he must have care and /or mobility needs for 3 months and expects them to last for another 6. The idea of DLA is to pay for the extra costs he has as a disabled person. You're not expected to keep him for free.

 

His NI contributions (for his pension) will be paid if he has savings over £16,000 and he receives no ESA.

[KullyS]

Thank you, I cannot wait until it's all sorted.

 

I will ring them tomorrow and ask them if I can take any of the money out for the bathroom updates etc, it just looks dodgy where there was no money spent and now I am using his money.

 

I can understand from their perspective.

[KullyS]

Does anyone know if there is an argument of taking any money from what I have spent over the last few years? Or will that be frowned upon?

[Tj rodgers]

Does anyone know if there is an argument of taking any money from what I have spent over the last few years? Or will that be frowned upon?

no there is no rule against that you could even take some of his money and put it in your account for the ammount that you have supported him for if you worked it out on paper to show them

[Nystagmite]

no there is no rule against that you could even take some of his money and put it in your account for the ammount that you have supported him for if you worked it out on paper to show them

 

But it would have to a reasonable amount. So, you couldn't just decide now that the DWP have flagged this, to take £20k, therefore, taking him below the threshold.