University and ESA

thebigcheese

Hello guys,

I am at university, staying in halls of residence.

I'm 23,

I have Cerebral Palsy, thus have limited capabillity for work.

I get DLA and IB at the moment.

I am due to be transferred to ESA in the next week or so.

I also have a student loan.

Now here is where my problem is.

Altough i know i will be able to get both DLA and ESA at university, how much ESA am i likely to loose because of my student loan, or do i not loose any???

I ask this because at the moment im staying in a very expensive "halls of residence" which is on the universirty campus, which enables me to acceess the university a lot easier and get around.

This costs me in the region of about £120 to £140 a week.

This is before i have paid for any food or other things.

If i am to loose some ESA, would i be able to claim housing benefit to help cover the cost of my room?

This is a very grey area, there is not a lot of information surrounding this sort of benefit claim.

I have only been able to stumble upon a few forums which suggest that whilse you can still claim ESA if you get DLA, the job centre take in to consideration your student finance as income and give you less ESA as a result.

I dont disagree with this, but i would like to be able to go to university and get a good degree, but i dont want to be worse off than i already am if you see what i mean.

University is going really well for me. I love it. I would hate to have to drop uni due to not being able to afford this specific type of residence.

Thanks in advance guys.

benefitbaby

This will depend on whether your ESA is income-related or whether you receive contributory-based ESA. If it is the latter it should have no impact.

PippaGirl_2

thebigcheese, your university student finance department will help you with this, they will also lead you in to any financial support they provide for their students. I recommend chatting to them sooner rather than later.

PippaGirl_2

Here you go

nannytone_2

as youre migrating from IB, you will go onto contributions based ESA, which isnt means tested.

if you get put into the WRAG, you can claim conts based for a year, and would then have to claim income based.

it would be at this poibnt that your student loans would come into consideration.

i know disabled students can claim HB, but it woukld be dependant on income, though DLA is ignored and a disabilkity premium would be added.

thebigcheese

Will it be contributions based? im on youth IB atm.

benefitbaby

thebigcheese wrote: »

Will it be contributions based? im on youth IB atm.

Yep it will

nannytone_2

you should still go onto conts based, as the rules for young people claiming ESA are the same as for young people who claimes IB

thebigcheese

Oh cheers guys, this is a really grey area, as a result not a lot of info on it.

When i get the outcome i might put together a document of some sort.

benefitbaby

ESA in youth was actually abolished from 1st May 2012 however as the OP was already on IB he will be migrated to CESA and will receive transitional protection to ensure he is not financially disadvantaged.

benefitbaby

thebigcheese wrote: »

Oh cheers guys, this is a really grey area, as a result not a lot of info on it.

When i get the outcome i might put together a document of some sort.

It is just knowing where to look, Disability Rights UK has both on-line information and publishes the Disability Rights Handbook (highly recomended and a reasonable price) and Child Poverty Action Group publish the Welfare Benefit and Tax Credit Handbook and this is very indepth with a matching price tag.

For an idea of the Disability Right UK info see here:
www.disabilityrightsuk.org/f31.htm