ESA (C) and Previous claims Question

supertomsk

My husband is currently on ESA (C).

he previously claimed this from Jul - Oct 2010, from Jan 2011 - Apr 2011 and from March 2012 - to present.

He worked for the periods in between.

Do the previous claims get counted towards the 12 months that ESA (C) is awarded to those in the WRAG.

Thanks for any help.

von

No, his new claim does not link to his previous claims and also new RITY's (Relevant Income Tax Years) will be used to calculate his new claim.

supertomsk

Update - Rec'd a letter today to say that the ESA will end on Jul 26th.

Cpt.Scarlet

You need to ask the DWP from a break down of the periods they are including in their calculation.

supertomsk

Just to keep you updated

Received a reply from DWP today which simply stated that 104 week linking applied to the claim, and nothing else on the letter

I have the relevant guidance to say this linking rule has been abolished so will be writing again on Monday and will let you know the outcome.

Cpt.Scarlet

The 104 week rule has been abolished, I think from 04/12, but would have been in effect for all of your husbands claims, I'm not suggesting that the DWP's use of this is correct, but I suspect that this is their argument.

epitome

supertomsk wrote: »

My husband is currently on ESA (C).

he previously claimed this from Jul - Oct 2010, from Jan 2011 - Apr 2011 and from March 2012 - to present.

He worked for the periods in between.

Do the previous claims get counted towards the 12 months that ESA (C) is awarded to those in the WRAG.

Thanks for any help.

Under the new rules from 01/05/2012
Claims that are not within 12 weeks from previous claim are not linked.
However if they use the same 2 RITYs there is an accumulative total of 365 days of ESA C (WRAG)

His claim was made in March 2012 so perhaps assessed under old rules.

If he made a new claim now it would be assessed on RITYs 9/10 & 10/11 under new rules.
10/11 should be an unused RITY for him, however the claim in March 12 could complicate matters. You should ask what RITYs were used for the claim in March 12.....if it has been disallowed for linking rules that would suggest previous RITYs were used not current RITYs

He should do another fresh claim for ESA C now which should use RITYs 9/10 & 10/11 if he satisfies those RITY conditions he should get it again for 365 days, but like I said the March 2012 claim could complicate things.