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Contribution-based Employment and Support Allowance
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I have posted before about being able to get JSA with savings just over £16,000 but low income. I repeat the post below in italics.
Also further down I have copied and pasted from the Directgov web site and wondered if I may be able to claim ESA in my circumstances? But what do it mean when they say provide I have paid enough NI Contributions?
I am 63, married and living in rented accommodation.
I worked for myself, for many years but had to close down my self employment due to rapidly dropping sales and the costs would have been greater than the sales income if I had carried on.
My self employment stopped at the end of 2008 and my last set of accounts was April 2009.
My income is £138 PW private pension and my wife has a state pension of £108 PW. So despite living very frugally our outgoings are higher than incomings.
I have been trying to get a job since stopping my self employment but no success.
I have been living of savings and not claimed any benefits but my savings are going down very rapidly but are still over the £16,000 which seems to be the maximum allowed for many benefits.
Contribution-based Employment and Support Allowance
You may be entitled to claim contribution-based Employment and Support Allowance if you have paid enough National Insurance contributions.
Also further down I have copied and pasted from the Directgov web site and wondered if I may be able to claim ESA in my circumstances? But what do it mean when they say provide I have paid enough NI Contributions?
I am 63, married and living in rented accommodation.
I worked for myself, for many years but had to close down my self employment due to rapidly dropping sales and the costs would have been greater than the sales income if I had carried on.
My self employment stopped at the end of 2008 and my last set of accounts was April 2009.
My income is £138 PW private pension and my wife has a state pension of £108 PW. So despite living very frugally our outgoings are higher than incomings.
I have been trying to get a job since stopping my self employment but no success.
I have been living of savings and not claimed any benefits but my savings are going down very rapidly but are still over the £16,000 which seems to be the maximum allowed for many benefits.
Contribution-based Employment and Support Allowance
You may be entitled to claim contribution-based Employment and Support Allowance if you have paid enough National Insurance contributions.
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Are you fit for work or not?Gone ... or have I?0
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Are you fit for work or not?
I took the decision several years ago that it was impossible to carry on working and was able to convince myself with a good spreadsheet that I would be able to get by by subsidising my income with money from my savings/pension lump sum. So far not going too bad but the money has down faster than I originally thought so beginning to panic now as still two yeras until I get my OAP which will make the difference I need.
My health problem has been ME for many many years and whilst being self employed in more recent years I was able to get away with my erratic good/bad days but three years ago my bad days became more often. Until then I was only able to work half days anyway but managed to survive. It reached a point where I was just not able to carry on working.
I realise with ME it would be very very tough claiming (especially after reading the claim form in the past few minutes but????????0 -
I took the decision several years ago that it was impossible to carry on working and was able to convince myself with a good spreadsheet that I would be able to get by by subsidising my income with money from my savings/pension lump sum. So far not going too bad but the money has down faster than I originally thought so beginning to panic now as still two yeras until I get my OAP which will make the difference I need.
My health problem has been ME for many many years and whilst being self employed in more recent years I was able to get away with my erratic good/bad days but three years ago my bad days became more often. Until then I was only able to work half days anyway but managed to survive. It reached a point where I was just not able to carry on working.
I realise with ME it would be very very tough claiming (especially after reading the claim form in the past few minutes but????????
Whwn did you last work and pay class 2 NIs?
You need full contributions for 2008-09 and 2009-10 to claim contributions based ESA and self employed contributions dont count, only employed class 1s.0 -
I was in receipt of NI Contributions Based ESA from November 2010 until a few weeks ago (as Maternity Allowance took over) for a pregnancy related illness which meant I was unable to pursue my regular line of self-employed work. I have only paid the required Self Employed NI Contribution in recent years, but experienced no problems getting the claim/payment processed, as long as they received the necessary Medical Certificates for the claim period.
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ready2faceRealityx wrote: »I was in receipt of NI Contributions Based ESA from November 2010 until a few weeks ago (as Maternity Allowance took over) for a pregnancy related illness which meant I was unable to pursue my regular line of self-employed work. I have only paid the required Self Employed NI Contribution in recent years, but experienced no problems getting the claim/payment processed, as long as they received the necessary Medical Certificates for the claim period.
xx
You have just rung a bell, a few months ago their was a couple of threads here about SE people claiming ESA and in one case they hadnt even paid any NIC's at all and they did eventually get ESA by paying up a certain amount of NIC's after the date that they became ill (so whats to stop anyone from doing that after a year or two travelling was one question and the answer was nothing!!!!!!) but I dont know if you can go back in history now and change it by paying them.0 -
I realise with ME it would be very very tough claiming (especially after reading the claim form in the past few minutes but????????
I've recently been placed in the Work Related Activity Group due to ME I'm appealing this decision, and requesting placement in the support group, on the grounds that I arguably fit several of the descriptors.
I _strongly_ recommend reading the 'decision makers guide' http://www.dwp.gov.uk/publications/specialist-guides/decision-makers-guide/#vol9 about ESA.
http://www.docstoc.com/docs/35885367/ESA-Handbook is the 'health care professionals' guide.
Search for 'certainly only once'
Read the ESA50 form, then go and read the decision makers guide (ch42 specifically), and the medical guide.
Then read them all again a couple of times, to get them to sink in.
Fill out a copy of the form to think about it. Think about exactly how ME affects you - this can be a totally depressing activity, but needs to be done.
Do not leave any boxes blank that you can reasonably fill in with how your condition affects you.
For example - speech.
http://www.disabilityalliance.org/esa50.pdf - question 7.
Is your speech affected when very fatigued?
11 - staying concious when awake.
I would argue that a severe fatigue attack exhibits many of the symptoms of one of the examples - a diabetic hypo.
Most of the mental descriptors are applicable in some way.
Many of the physical descriptors may be too.
It's quite important to realise that the questions on the ESA50 form are actually referring to the underlying descriptors, as found in the decision makers guide - and ultimately the caselaw and legislation.
You will almost certainly be required to attend a WCA - work capability assesment.
This is an interview with a health-care-professional who has been trained in disability assessment. My experience was that the interview was not too stressfull, but this will vary depending on your HCP.
It's important to realise that a failure at this stage is not fatal to your claim, and that you can appeal. And that appeals in many cases have well over 50% approval rate.0 -
You have just rung a bell, a few months ago their was a couple of threads here about SE people claiming ESA and in one case they hadnt even paid any NIC's at all and they did eventually get ESA by paying up a certain amount of NIC's after the date that they became ill (so whats to stop anyone from doing that after a year or two travelling was one question and the answer was nothing!!!!!!) but I dont know if you can go back in history now and change it by paying them.
Oh, I know there is an Income Assessed ESA payment & a completely seperate NI Contributions Based version, although I'm uncertain of how they differ in actual payments.
Again, I'm unsure of figures, but to qualify for NI Contributions Based ESA & Maternity Allowance, I had to have proof that all of my NI Contributions were up to date before the application was sent.
To be fair, I have literally been off work due to a pregnancy related issue which very, very rarely remains post delivery, so the ESA were aware from the beginning of the application, that I'd be applying for a very specific & finite time. It wasn't even until the Maternity Allowance took over actually as I closed the ESA claim a bit earlier as for a wonderfully brief moment in my pregnancy, things started to improve.
Not quite the case now though unfortunately, but only 9 weeks left to go haha. x0 -
My income is £138 PW private pension and my wife has a state pension of £108 PW. So despite living very frugally our outgoings are higher than incomings.
Contribution-based Employment and Support Allowance
You may be entitled to claim contribution-based Employment and Support Allowance if you have paid enough National Insurance contributions.
As you have seen there are 2 types of ESA however your pension is likely to affect any payment even if you could qualify on NI contributions
Contributory ESA is similar to Incapacity Benefit. It is notyou receive.
generally affected by any income, savings or other benefits
you receive, except for any occupational or personal pension
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Thank you so much for all the help so far. There is a lot of reading for me to do. I have also been to the Job Centre this morning and they say my next step is to make an appointment at the CAB. So on with the reading!!!0
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Thanks for your help and today I telephoned the NI office.
As I was 60 when I stopped working I have been getting the equivelent of Class One contributions since. This is because of age and would keep going until I am 65.
My next call was a telephone application for ESA which was OK based on my circumstances.0
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