DWP morons

[classedasarsehole]

I received a large amount of compensation, bought a house, and was told I could claim contributions ESA and rent out the house as long as I inform them of the income, and this accountant, saying he doesn't believe I would be entitled to anything if I am getting rental income, I felt he was like saying I was lying, according to esa people on phone, as long as I tell them about income yearly sending prove from accountant, they won't be no issues as contributions based you can have a lot of savings and partner earning up to £100,000

But can't find anything on rental income?

Do you claim carers allowance?

I would suggest contacting your council welfare rights team.

OP you need to take all your information along to a welfare advisor such as citizens advice. Then they can look at what you are claiming and how income or capital could affect those benefits.

I am curious as to the title. Why are the dwp morons? Please explain.

Contribution based ESA is for people who were working and paying national insurance. In the “old” days a person would then move onto income based ESA - if their illness went on longer.

I haven’t heard of going from income based to contribution based.

I've always found the DWP staff I've spoken to very helpful. It doesn't help to call them morons; you'll get nowhere with that attitude. I think you need to call again to get your position clarified. Maybe the person you spoke to misinterpreted what you were trying to explain or maybe you just didn't make it clear.

You can be on a combination of contributions & income based benefits, the contribution based part doesn't matter what else you have coming in or savings except for occupational pensions over £85 per week. Income does affect housing & council tax benefit, but if you get any income based benefits no matter how small you qualify for full housing benefit.

I do get carers allowance!
My dad mortgage is paid off.
But bills care respite extra heating electric it all does add up

Right so you get ESA and Carers allowance. You were given a large amount of money and bought a house. Why did you do that? When did you do that? You could be looking at fraud you know.

I would guess from the info that you were on a mix on income and contribution based ESA in the Support Group (either because you were previously employed or through the special Carer's Allowance route), you've bought this house and now DWP are going to stop the income based element leaving you with £440/month from the contribution based ESA.

It all sounds fine if that's the case. Contribution based ESA is not affected by rental income.

I'm not sure if you're calling DWP morons by the way but if so that seems quite unreasonable. It's a stupidly complex system but there are some good people there.

Hang on a min, so me and my OH have tightened our belt for 10 years to save a good bloody deposit to buy a home for our kids. because of our savings, we don’t qualify for any help as it’s over the limit. We have two children, I work part time and my partner works full time, we struggle each month but refuse to spend our bloody hard earned sweat and tears deposit. You spend yours on property straight away and that’s fine? Wow.

Ps. They aren’t morons, I worked there 10 years ago and they were some of the nicest people I could ever meet working under ridiculous and horrific rules. The abuse they receive daily is not worth the wage tbh.

To be fair @Auramigraine, the OP is claiming contribution-based ESA and you or your DH would be able to claim that regardless of savings if you became too unwell to work (and met the other criteria). It's got different rules to the means-tested benefits which you would be entitled to if it were not for your savings. It sounds like the OP is in the Support Group which is for people who are very unwell. It's not really something to be envied...

Also, if you'd been able to purchase somewhere to live before having children you could still claim means-tested benefits. It's not an entirely fair system 🤷‍♀️

the OP is claiming contribution-based ESA

The OP has said she is claiming income based ESA and has been doing so for 3/4 years.

This is complex because we're being drip fed information.

Are you too sick to work or are you a full time carer?

Did you receive income based ESA or contributions based? Are you receiving anything at the moment? If you were already receiving a CB element of ESA then you'll continue to have received this even when you had the capital.

they were some of the nicest people I could ever meet working under ridiculous and horrific rules.

That's akin to a defence used by the Nazis.

was it medical compensation? (sorry if I missed reading this) as previous person said money should have been placed in trust & trust should have purchased property - than it should not be counted - did you not get this advice? For others - this is the only type of money adwp cannot/should not touch - it may be for medical incident usually worked on why someone lost income (temp/permanently) because of this error or incident -

The OP has said she is claiming income based ESA and has been doing so for 3/4 years.

I'd put money on the situation being that the OP has been receiving both the contribution and income-based element for 3/4 years. The contribution-based rates are lower so the income-based element effectively tops the contribution-based benefit up. Claimants often get confused and think they are just on the income-based version when this happens. I'm an ex-CAB adviser and worked as a solicitor in welfare benefits for a few years so have seen this happen a lot. The OP said she's claiming Carer's Allowance and there's a route to claim contribution-based ESA relying on that rather than employment contributions.

The advice from the DWP makes sense if this is the case too. The OP would move from a claim which includes a means-tested element to one which is purely contributions-based.

@NoBaggyPants do you actually think that the DWP are like the Nazis?

@ILoveEurovision

The OP said in the first thread that she is on income based ESA and was told she may be able to transfer over to contributions.... she also said she is a carer for her dad, which is fair enough, however if you are very unwell like you say, I doubt you could be someone’s full time carer. Sorry I was basing my reply on that.

And @nobaggypants suppose if you’ve never experienced working there, you may form that opinion but I’ll hold mine, I keep in touch with a lot of them now and a lot have left/want to leave as it’s truly not a nice place to work unless you have a thick skin.

You need to have worked and paid national insurance for the last couple of years in order to claim contributions based ESA (now called New Style ESA), if you were put into the work related group you could only claim for 12 months and would then need to move to UC. If you’re put in the support group you can stay on New Style ESA. On UC your rental property will count as capital and you wouldn’t get anything until your capital/savings were under £16k.

On New Style ESA (and for carers) your rental income should be classed as unearned income so would be ok.

If you are Ill yourself you may be able to claim PIP for yourself. PIP is not income based so your rental income wouldn’t make any difference.

I receive ESA income with carers element.

I own house in full so asset

Would get rental income after expenses of £300 per month.

I wouldn't be able to live on £300 month.

House is 200 miles. To be able to buy something.

I have spoken to 3 different advisers all given different advise!

Some of their ppl are not well trained. Why did you buy a house?
Get professional advice

You bought a house 200 miles away from where you live?