Sick and disabled people will be paid £1BILLION of benefits they were denied as bill for DWP blunder explodes

[John Mac]

Hard-up claimants of ESA were shortchanged by up to £20,000 each. Now the number of victims - and money owed - has soared

It affects claimants who were transferred from the old Incapacity Benefit (IB) to the newer Emploment & Support Allowance (ESA).

They were wrongly put in the Contributory group rather than the Income-based group and so were underpayed to the tune of £1 billion.


https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/politics/breaking-sick-disabled-people-paid-13430141

 

[Wonko]

It seems odd to pay out that sort of money if no ones responsible for the 'blunder' which wasn't - it was deliberate policy IMO.

...and of course we can tell no one's responsible as no one's doing time, stealing £1 billion, from multiple people, over decades, surely that's got to be at least community service, for someone, if anyone was responsible.

ETA - I can't help but wonder, how many died.

 

[Sly Saint]

I've been looking on a few fora about this and the thing is, people who have received repayments have no way of checking if they are correct as the DWP aren't saying how they are working it out.......and we know how good they are at that. Others are having to chase up claims that they made following the ruling (the DWP are supposed to be contacting people about it and saying nobody has to do anything.....IE trust them...ha).

What I haven't been able to find out is will the backdated repayments only be made to those who are still currently claiming and in the support group?

If so, then it is quite likely that there will be an even bigger push to get people (who might be entitled to backdated payments) into the WRAG group or off ESA altogether so that they (the DWP) will not have to make the payments.