Contributory ESA V Income related ESA

Ginger555

Hello Forum
Basic questions here.
If you are placed into "Contibutory ESA" can you have any amount of savings, are your savings taken into account or not looked at as you fall into this group.

If you are placed into "Income Related ESA" is this where the figure of £16000 comes into action and your payments are cut back depending on how much you have saved, just want to be sure I have the facts straight.

Thanks for any info on the above, Ginger555.

healy

Ginger555 wrote: »

Hello Forum
Basic questions here.
If you are placed into "Contibutory ESA" can you have any amount of savings, are your savings taken into account or not looked at as you fall into this group.

If you are placed into "Income Related ESA" is this where the figure of £16000 comes into action and your payments are cut back depending on how much you have saved, just want to be sure I have the facts straight.

Thanks for any info on the above, Ginger555.

Yes if you are paid contribution based ESA you can have any amount of savings.

If you are on income based ESA you receive full payment if your savings are below £6000, a reduced payment between £6000 and £16000 and no payment above £16000.

Ginger555

Healy
Thanks for the reply, am I correct in thinking that I need to have paid my National Insurance for 3 years prior to my first claim date to get contribution based ESA ? as I was employed at that time my employer would have paid the NI.

I have read soooo much stuff from all over that the answer gets lost with different sites saying verious things, I am sure you know what I mean.

Thanks.

healy

Ginger555 wrote: »

Healy
Thanks for the reply, am I correct in thinking that I need to have paid my National Insurance for 3 years prior to my first claim date to get contribution based ESA ? as I was employed at that time my employer would have paid the NI.

I have read soooo much stuff from all over that the answer gets lost with different sites saying verious things, I am sure you know what I mean.

Thanks.

Here are the details of the NI Conts that need to be paid:

Contributory Employment and Support Allowance and national insurance contributions

The first contribution condition for contributory Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) is that you must have actually paid Class 1 or 2 national insurance contributions in one of the last three tax years before you claim. However, you may be able to satisfy this condition with contributions paid in any tax year, if you haven’t been able to pay contributions recently - for example, because you were getting Carer’s Allowance or Incapacity Benefit, or if you were getting Working Tax Credit with a disability element before you became incapable of work.

The second condition is that you must either have paid or been credited with contributions for the last two tax years before you claim. However, credited contributions will not always count towards this condition.

The contribution conditions for ESA, and when they can be relaxed because of your circumstances, are very complicated. If you have had limited capability for work since you were young, you may not have to satisfy any national insurance contribution conditions at all, and you will get contributory ESA without any NI being paid or credited. If you do not meet the contribution conditions for contributory ESA, you may still qualify for income-related ESA if your income and capital are low enough.

Ginger555

Thanks for the reply, as I was employed full time prior to being on Incap Ben, my employer would have taken NI from my pay as per everyone else, is this classed as either class 1 or class 2 NI ???
Is there any way of back checking this that you know of ?

Another question I thought of is while on Incap Ben is your NI being paid and kept up to date by the state/goverment ?

Thanks for any info.

healy

Ginger555 wrote: »

Thanks for the reply, as I was employed full time prior to being on Incap Ben, my employer would have taken NI from my pay as per everyone else, is this classed as either class 1 or class 2 NI ???
Is there any way of back checking this that you know of ?

Another question I thought of is while on Incap Ben is your NI being paid and kept up to date by the state/goverment ?

Thanks for any info.

That would be class 1 NI. There should be details on your payslips.

It is now ESA and you would receive NI credits whilst receiving it.

Ginger555

Healy
Thanks for all the info's and your time answering.

Regards, Ginger555.