We were contacted about a lady who had returned her completed Employment Support Allowance (ESA) forms to the DWP, as requested. She didn’t though send them recorded delivery, which she later regretted when the DWP claimed not to have received them. She discovered this when her ESA payments stopped without warning. This went on for a while as last month she had to borrow enough money to be able to pay her bills and buy food. She had sensibly sought a nil income form from her local authority to cover her rent and council tax payments. Eventually the DWP “found” the forms and agreed that her payments would be reinstated, however they then cancelled them again just a few days later and she is still in the midst of trying to understand why this has happened or for the DWP to be able to explain why, as they don’t appear to know why either.
As she is completely without money and needs to buy food, top up her gas and electric meters, and buy some medical items we agreed to send across £100, which will hopefully tide her over until the DWP can reinstate her payments again.