Contribution based ESA query

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Hi all

Today I spent nearly an hour on the phone to start my claim for contribution based ESA. I am now wondering whether it was worth the effort.

I was wondering what account they make of private pension received, other sick pay, and payment protection insurance payments for sickness absence.

My main job gave me only 20 weeks sick pay (full then half) as I had only been with them a year. Then I had just SSP with them. That finished mid March and they have sent be for SSP1.
I also have a part time job from which I am also on sick leave - now down to only half pay which finishes end of May - and no SSP from them because I didn’t earn enough. The jobcentre wanted to know about this job - but not how much money I was getting.
I also have a very small private pension - they wanted to know how much.
Lastly, I am also receiving sickness payments from my payment protection insurance. They wanted to know how much.

I am now wondering whether they will say I don’t qualify because of these payments. However, when I was claiming contribution based JSA a few years ago my insurance payments did not affect my benefit. So does ESA also ignore this? I think some private pension is also disregarded with repsect to JSA. Does ESA?

Any one been in a similar situation?

Julie

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Hi Julie I was working full time for my organisation when my SSP ran out but was told that I could claim ESA. Eventually I got it on the basis that I had full NI contribution record and it was not means tested the weekly amount was about £65 then they kept paying me even when I went back to work so still sorting that out. Every little helps as they say and I was put on no pay in Dec too. J xx

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Hi,
The way I understand it is that there is Income related ESA and Contribution related ESA, it sounds like you’d fall into the contributions ESA if you’ve been working and paying NI.With Income ESDA you are means tested with Contribution you aren’t, so if I’m right you should still get C. ESA even if you have some other money coming in. I’m not an expert though so still check it out.
Good luck!
Julie x

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What happened there? I was logged in, I had a post window, I took ages getting all the right links, I clicked on Submit and it disappeared with my information and told me I had to be logged in to do that… sigh. Start at dwp.gov.uk

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Hi

To claim contribution based ESA you have to have paid ni conts for the previous 2 tax years it is paid regardless of partners wage/savings for 6 months. You would then have to apply for income based esa which takes in to account partners wages/savings any other income. With regard to pensions there is a disregard of £50 for conts based and income based so if you get any more than £50 this is taken off the ESA pound for pound. There is after 13 weeks a medical which then determines if you actually get a bit more than the £65 (Not sure about this bit)

Hope this helps

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Hi. I only rang on Mon to claim ESA contributions base.By Wed they had already paid something into my bank and then today had the letter to say £65 a week. Can’t believe how quick it was!

  • see other thread on ESA re the letters they send.
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Thanks for your comments.
As I am claiming only contribution based ESA it looks like my small pension won’t affect it. Hopefully my payment protection won’t either (it didn’t affect when I got contributiona based JSA a couple of years ago).
The only one that I think may affect the ESA is my sick pay from my second job, but as the amount is less than the ESA amount, I should hopefully still get some money, even if it is reduced.
Any other comments are welcome.
Julie