incapacity benefit pre 1995

lindy199

Hi i have been on incapacity benefit since 1993 and now been migrated to esa wrag (appealing against this) my question is, as tax credits disregarded my ib, does this now mean that my esa is classed as income now?? doesnt seem worth the hassle if they gonna give it to me in one hand and take it out the other so to speak, any help would be appreciated.

Horseunderwater

As far as I know - only the contributions type ESA is classed as income for taxation/credits and other things. The one that is for people on low incomes (means tested) is not. So the ? is which one are they trying to put you into. Is it the WRAC means tested one or the support means tested one? Get that cleared up and you will then know.

Anubis_2

I believe ESA (Contributions Based) is considered as income for Working Tax Credit, and may reduce your WTC.

Alternatively, in the case of ESA (Income Based), then the WTC is counted as income and may reduce the amount of ESA.

How are you claiming IB/ESA and WTC? Normally this is not allowed (unless you claim as a couple, one working) as permitted work has to be under 16 hours, unless doing the £20 per week PW.

16 hours or more would rule out IB/ESA (apart from £20 low earning PW)

mikey_bach

People can work over 16 hours on permitted work, claim IB and WTC as long as their permitted work earns under £20.
Usually these people are self employed doing the permitted work, and declaring the £20 per week...

IB conts is classed as Income for WTC and you can claim both.
If the OP has gone over to ESA it should be ESA conts if placed in the WRAG group theu can claim for a year then they will go on to ESA IB,

then WTC can not be claimed permitted work or not

Anubis_2

mikey_bach wrote: »

People can work over 16 hours on permitted work, claim IB and WTC as long as their permitted work earns under £20.
Usually these people are self employed doing the permitted work, and declaring the £20 per week...

IB conts is classed as Income for WTC and you can claim both.
If the OP has gone over to ESA it should be ESA conts if placed in the WRAG group theu can claim for a year then they will go on to ESA IB,
then WTC can not be claimed permitted work or not

That's what I said

lindy199

its my husband claiming the wtc, so they gonna take it off that now is that correct? still cant see the point in claiming it then

Anubis_2

lindy199 wrote: »

its my husband claiming the wtc, so they gonna take it off that now is that correct? still cant see the point in claiming it then

I would advise still claiming if possible because if anything happens to your husband's job, you still have ESA and can add him to your claim.

Much better than having to start the whole thing from scratch if such a scenario happened.

sunnyone

I was tranfered from IVB into the support group a couple of months ago and in the award letter it tells you that your ESA is counted for tax credit/taxation purposes and that they have already told HMRC about the changeover, your award letter must say the same because it must be a standard phrase as we dont claim tax credits.

minimadtrix

This is a question I've been pondering as well.

Just to clarify, tax credits do not consider Incapacity Benefit if it was claimed before 1995, as it was not taxable at the time. Pre IB it was known as something else (quite what at the moment, I can't remember) but when it was transferred to IB, it was still classed as a continuation of that benefit and remained non taxable.

So, whilst the OP is asking about moving over to ESA, I think the point they are trying to make is because their benefit is 'technically' being renamed again, will it still remain non taxable and therefore wouldn't be included in a tax credit claim (as in the case of non taxable IB at the mo)