Thousands of Brits on benefits could be owed £5,000 back pay – how to check if you’re affected
HARD-UP Brits could be owed an average of £5,000 after a benefits error left thousands with less money than they should have.
Thousands of claimants did not receive all of the cash they were entitled to under the Employment Support Allowance (ESA) scheme between 2011 and 2014.
People who are ill or disabled can apply for ESA help, and you could get up to £74.70 a week.
But the Department for Work and Pensions discovered a system error in 2016 that meant a raft of claimants weren’t being paid enough.
Some had missed out on premiums like the enhanced disability premium, which is worth up to £24.60 per week.
Since then, the DWP has been checking through 600,000 cases, and has so far paid out a whopping £589million in back payments.
In both cases, you'll need a few bits of information handy, including your National Insurance number, bank or building society number and sortcode, your doctor's name and address, and details of your income.
This entire process can take up to 13 weeks for you to receive ESA benefits.
The government is under mounting pressure to keep the £20 a week Universal Credit uplift.
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