Self employed and claimed ESA

red_machenka

Hi all, I just wanted some info really.

I have been self employed for 2 years, last October (2009) I was out of work for 3 weeks (due to op on hand), I applied for ESA due to the op on my hand and not being able to work.

I recieved a letter from ESA to say that I was not entitled to ESA.

Therefore I got back to work 3 weeks later.

It dawned on me a month ago that I hadn't recieved a National Insurance bill for a while so I contacted NI to find out why... they said it was because ESA are paying (crediting) my NI, the bloke on the phone (from NI) told me that he wouuld put a note of the system and someone in back office would contact my local jobcentre and find out why they are still paying my NI.

I contacted NI again today as I still haven't heard anything from them (or recieved a bill) only to be told that the NI office wouldn't contact the jobcentre and I would have to do it.

So I called ESA they confirmed that although I have never recieved any payments for ESA they are continuing to pay my NI.

The bloke from ESA said (in a harsh voice) "well i'll have to tell them!", I asked him what would happen now and he said "I dont know wait for them to contact you."

So this got me a bit worried... hence i'm on here... will they try and do me for fraud or something?

I'm not worried about paying all my NI backdated from last october but I am going on maternity leave shortly and therefore want to claim Maternity Allowence... should I claim for MA now or wait till all this NI stuff is sorted as I know that MA is based on NI contributions?

NASA_2

When you returned to work did you inform ESA that you had done so? If not then they would have continued to pay your National Insurance wrongly. Let them know exactly what date you went back to work so that they can close the claim from that date and remove the wrongly paid credits. You can then pay the outstanding National Insurance Contributions.

I dont think it really matters when you claim for MA but I could be wrong on that.