Earlier in 2022, the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) located approximately 22,500 Housing Benefits claimants impacted by the Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) underpayment and Incapacity Benefit (IB) reassessment corrective program.
As reported by the Daily Record, this exercise has seen local authorities check if arrears were due for claimants from 2011 to 2019. The DWP stated in August that after the exercise was completed in March, additional cases were identified that saw claimants have their Income Related ESA award reassessed.
This week, Welsh MP Ben Lake questioned whether the DWP has reached out to every claimant that qualified for compensation. DWP Parliamentary Under-Secretary Claire Coutinho MP answered: “As part of the IB to ESA reassessment LEAP exercise the Department reviewed around 600,000 cases and made 118,000 arrears payments amounting to over £600m.”
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She added: “Special payments for maladministration are made in line with the Department’s Special Payments policy.
“Where an individual feels they may be eligible for a Special Payment, they can contact the Department and set out their reasons. All requests received will be considered on a case-by-case basis.”
Special Payments
The DWP allows people to claim 'Special Payments' if they have been impacted by ‘maladministration’ or ‘official error’.
Incapacity Benefit Reassessment corrective exercise
Beginning March 2022, the DWP started moving Incapacity Benefit, Severe Disability Allowance, Income Support cases to ESA from 2011 onwards.
As stated by the DWP at the time, eligibility for ESA Income Related was not considered at first if Income Support was not in payment at the point of migration. As a result, the DWP Incapacity Benefit Reassessment LEAP exercise was introduced
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