Advice needed please, Income Support

I`ve now recieved a letter from the DWP, stating that they are reducing my payments by £16 per week. No explanation, just the standard I.S. award letter, so I had to think about
this. I assume that they are saying that the money is Capital, and that is their
justification.
How can this be regarded as Capital? I`m not recieving any interest on it, it just reduces the amount of interest that the bank demands, which saves the DWP money! And I can`t access this money, because it isn`t mine, it`s the bank`s, not in a savings account, so it will
never go down, which means they will always be taking the £16 per week, forever!
I wanted to reduce the amount that the DWP pay the bank on my behalf, to help myself, to be less dependent, and they penalise me for this.
I feel like they`ve punched me in the face, and said "happy xmas, sucker".
Is it just to crush our spirits that they do things like this?

Mark wrote:

I`ve now recieved a letter from the DWP, stating that they are reducing my payments by £16 per week. No explanation, just the standard I.S. award letter, so I had to think about
this. I assume that they are saying that the money is Capital, and that is their
justification.
How can this be regarded as Capital? I`m not recieving any interest on it, it just reduces the amount of interest that the bank demands, which saves the DWP money! And I can`t access this money, because it isn`t mine, it`s the bank`s, not in a savings account, so it will
never go down, which means they will always be taking the £16 per week, forever!
I wanted to reduce the amount that the DWP pay the bank on my behalf, to help myself, to be less dependent, and they penalise me for this.
I feel like they`ve punched me in the face, and said "happy xmas, sucker".
Is it just to crush our spirits that they do things like this?

you had money ? and paid something off ? if that is so then I cant see what the problem is. the reason you get IS is to pay bills all your bills.

I know if you have money and pay something off and are going bankrupt, the people dealing with your problem on behalf of the govenment can turn round and say that should not have been paid and take the money back and put it in the pot if you have favored one person you owe more than others, but I did not think IS can say that because you paid mortgage off

I thought there was a type of list in a DWP manual with a list of certain things you could not do, to reduce capital, but even then in this case it should not count for 52 weeks .... the more I think about it the dafter it becomes, someone must have messed up ?

Mark wrote:

I`ve now recieved a letter from the DWP, stating that they are reducing my payments by £16 per week. No explanation, just the standard I.S. award letter, so I had to think about
this. I assume that they are saying that the money is Capital, and that is their
justification.
How can this be regarded as Capital? I`m not recieving any interest on it, it just reduces the amount of interest that the bank demands, which saves the DWP money! And I can`t access this money, because it isn`t mine, it`s the bank`s, not in a savings account, so it will
never go down, which means they will always be taking the £16 per week, forever!
I wanted to reduce the amount that the DWP pay the bank on my behalf, to help myself, to be less dependent, and they penalise me for this.
I feel like they`ve punched me in the face, and said "happy xmas, sucker".
Is it just to crush our spirits that they do things like this?

Hi Mark

If the DWP have not given you an explanation for the reduction, it's not a good idea to assume anything. You need to ask them for a written explanation.

The money you used to pay off part of your mortgage is disregarded capital and does not justify a benefit reduction.

There may be some other reason, or you may be able to challenge the reasons they give, but in any case you should ask them to explain their decision.

Regards

Derek

Hello,
I wrote to the DWP as suggested by Derek, asking them to explain the decision, and to look at it again. The leaflet I got with the letter said I had one month to do this, and I did it well within that time. It`s now been three weeks since I wrote to them, and I`ve recieved no reply, or acknowledgement. What should I do? Are they just going to ignore me? Can they do that? The leaflet also said I had one month to appeal, but I could do that if I`m not satisfied with the second decision. Will they now say it`s too late to appeal?
The longer this goes on the worse it seems to get.

Please don't despair Mark. Keep coming on here and getting advice. Take care.