Income based ESA vs Contribution based or is it possible to get both

hrafndot

I have recently been confused by someone saying that I should be claiming income based and contribution basded ESA. I cannot understand why I am only on contribution based as I have been working all my life and have paid masses of tax and NI contributions, at least for the past 25-30 years, is anyone able to give a succinct explanation?

sunnyone

hrafndot wrote: »

I have recently been confused by someone saying that I should be claiming income based and contribution basded ESA. I cannot understand why I am only on contribution based as I have been working all my life and have paid masses of tax and NI contributions, at least for the past 25-30 years, is anyone able to give a succinct explanation?

You cant claim both, just one or the other and for the one you are on you can have as much savings as you want but you have the privilage of paying for prescriptions, glasses, dentists etc.

ChishyChoshy

Contribution based is not the bad thing people seem to think it is! Yes you don't get some help with things but if others in your household worked or claimed benefits or you had £6000+ in savings then your income related benefit could be halved or even stopped entirely. Plus depending on your condition you may be able to claim DLA without it affecting your ESA contribution claim.

If there were only income related benefits then anyone who had worked all their life and gained quite a bit in capital/savings would be told they weren't eligible for anything.

richard9991

ChishyChoshy wrote: »

Contribution based is not the bad thing people seem to think it is! Yes you don't get some help with things but if others in your household worked or claimed benefits or you had £6000+ in savings then your income related benefit could be halved or even stopped entirely. Plus depending on your condition you may be able to claim DLA without it affecting your ESA contribution claim.

If there were only income related benefits then anyone who had worked all their life and gained quite a bit in capital/savings would be told they weren't eligible for anything.

you can claim health costs via form hc1 available from dwps drs surgary on low income grounds if you have no or little savings