ESA & Tax credits question

lukeandfiona9

Hi there, new to the forum.
Just wondering if someone could help me with the following.
My husband claims ESA income related and DLA and I am on his ESA claim also.
I am considering starting a self employed business and with that potentially claiming working tax credits.
With doing this id obviously be removed from the ESA claim.
But would my partner be then re-allowed his disability premium on his ESA which was removed when I was added to his claim.
Does anyone know how much of a affect if any it would have on our housing benefits?
Or any other potential changes that would happen if I were to go self employed and claim working tax credits.

Many thanks in advance

bloolagoon

If he's on income ESA, your income would affect his whole claim and depending on income could result in not being eligible for ESA.

lukeandfiona9

The guy at the job centre said it would be a case of my husband changing to contribution based esa rather than income.
So left a bit confused.

pmlindyloo

lukeandfiona9 wrote: »

The guy at the job centre said it would be a case of my husband changing to contribution based esa rather than income.
So left a bit confused.

If your OH is entitled to contribution based ESA then your income/savings would not be counted.

However, if your OH is in the WRAG group his contribution based ESA will end after one year.

If he is in the Support group it can continue indefinitely all the time he remains in the Support group.

If you are on contribution based ESA then no disability elements are payable.

lukeandfiona9

Thanks for the swift responses, much appreciated.
Yes he's in the support group part of ESA
My final question is would all this affect housing benefits as at the moment it is paid in full.
He gets medium rate DLA

pmlindyloo

lukeandfiona9 wrote: »

Thanks for the swift responses, much appreciated.
Yes he's in the support group part of ESA
My final question is would all this affect housing benefits as at the moment it is paid in full.
He gets medium rate DLA

You need to notify the council of any change of circumstances and yes, it is likely to affect your HB and CT reduction as you would not be on income based ESA which gives you automatic entitlement to full HB.

Your income and his contribution based ESA would be counted as income, as would the tax credits.

You could try putting in different scenarios into the benefit calculator on https://www.entitledto.co.uk but with self employment it could be difficult to calculate your entitlements.

WillowCat

Do you claim for carer's allowance for him? If you don't, then it might be worthwhile claiming it when you start work if you earn less than £110 while the business is being built up, when you are earning a reasonable sum and can justify >30 hours per week you can cease claiming Carers and start claiming WTC.

(based on you saying he is on medium DLA which I am assuming is the care component.)

As other posters have said it's only the income based top up on ESA he will lose, not the contributions part.