Incapacity?ESA help needed

cheesecake

I would really appreciate some advice on the following, for my housemate.

She had been unable to work long term due to mental health problems until Sept 2007. Prior to this she was claiming Income Support in lieu of IB as she had not paid enough contributions.

With the help of Shaw Trust and pathways to work, she began work in September 2007, and claimed WTC including disability component. She was given benefits protection using a 104 week linkage.

In summer 2008, her mental health began to deteriorate. She worked with Shaw Trust and Work Step to try to stay in work, and reduced her hours substantially in Sept 2008. Work Step offered 'rest and recuperation days' but her employer rejected these.

At the end of Oct 2008, her mental health deteriorated further and she was signed off sick. The company announced redundancies, and since attendance was a major criterion, as well as only full time employees being kept, she was made redundant in December 2008.

We took the 104 week linkage to mean she could claim benefits at the same rate, and she completed the IB form, which the benefit office recieved in January 09. They ignored the 104 week rule and passed it to the ESA office. Somewhere along the line they lost the form entirely.

When this was queried at the start of Feb, the office agreed it was IB not ESA, but she had to submit another form, as they had lost it.

No action was taken and when a further enquiry was made a couple of weeks later, she was told they were waiting for some info from her old employer about whether she'd got SSP while off sick before her employment was terminated. They again agreed that it would be IB under the linking rules, but said it would be IB credits and Income support as she'd still not paid enough contributions.

On 16th March, she was told by phone that they would sort this out and get money into her account within a few days. Again the linking period was acknowledged.

Today she has recieved a form for ESA with no explanation. On phoning, she was told that she needed to claim ESA not Income support, as as she'd worked up until Dec 2008, she would not be entitled to any income support this financial year, or next, because her earnings during this time would be taken into account.

The housing benefit office will not pay benefit without a letter from the benefits office confirming entitlement. This means she has had no money since December and it now seems no closer to being resolved. They are also requesting sicknotes backdated to Jan. This is affecting her mental health very dramatically.

My understanding is, since she has the letter confirming benefits protection for 104 weeks, she should go back on her previous benefits, with previous levels of entitlement. If she goes on ESA, this will be much less money, but mostly, she needs to get this sorted out.

I've tried to research this myself but while I can find loads on IB and the linking rule (under which she would be entitled), I can't find much on 104 week linking for IS in lieu of IB.

Any advice from someone who knows a bit more about this would be very gratefully received.
I'm sorry for the length of the post but I wanted to make sure I had all the necessary info.

thanks
Samantha

NASA_2

I think the 104 week linking is just for claims where the IB itself was in payment. If I am right then it would be an ESA claim and not IB.

It really should have been sorted out one way or the other. The computer systems we use are meant to sort it out.

cheesecake

Hi, thanks for the reply. Everything I can find seems to say IS is also protected, but I can't find anything specific re IS in lieu of IB. If you're right then I guess she never should have been put on the benefits protection thing.

thanks again
Samantha