ESA Reassessment Approach

Alice_Holt

Some info on the eligibility to claim the disabled element of WTC:

"WTC - disabled worker element

This element is a significant one for disabled people. In addition to working at least 16 hours a week, you have to satisfy two other tests - a ‘work disadvantage test’, and be in receipt (or recent receipt) of a ‘qualifying benefit’.

The 'disability' test

To get the disability element of WTC included in your assessment, you must have a ‘physical or mental disability which puts [you] at a disadvantage in getting a job’. This is assessed by the 'disability' test.

Disability that puts you are a disadvantage in getting a job.
You will pass the disability test for working tax credit if:
on an initial claim, one (or more) of the conditions in Part 1 or 2 apply to you;

on a renewal claim, one (or more) of the conditions in Part 1 apply to you.

Part 1

1. When standing you cannot keep your balance unless you continually hold onto something.

2. Using any crutches, walking frame, walking stick, prosthesis or similar walking aid which you normally use, you cannot walk a continuous distance of 100 metres along level ground without stopping or without suffering severe pain.

3. You can use neither of your hands behind your back as in the process of putting on a jacket or of tucking a shirt into trousers.

4. You can extend neither of your arms in front of you so as to shake hands with another person without difficulty.

5. You can put neither of your hands up to your head without difficulty so as to put on a hat.

6. Due to lack of manual dexterity you cannot, with one hand, pick up a coin which is not more than 2.5 centimetres in diameter.

7. You are not able to use your hands or arms to pick up a full jug of 1 litre capacity and pour from it into a cup, without difficulty.

8. You can turn neither of your hands sideways through 180 degrees.

9. You are registered as blind or registered as partially sighted in a register compiled by a local authority.

10. You cannot see to read 16 point print at a distance greater than 20 centimetres, if appropriate, wearing the glasses you normally use.

11. You cannot hear a telephone ring when you are in the same room as the telephone, if appropriate, using a hearing aid you normally use.

12. In a quiet room you have difficulty in hearing what someone talking in a loud voice at a distance of 2 metres says, if appropriate, using a hearing aid you normally use.

13. People who know you well have difficulty in understanding what you say.

14. When a person you know well speaks to you, you have difficulty in understanding what that person says.

15. At least once a year during waking hours you are in a coma or have a fit in which you lose consciousness.

16. You have a mental illness for which you receive regular treatment under the supervision of a medically qualified person.

17. Due to mental disability you are often confused or forgetful.

18. You cannot do the simplest addition and subtraction.

19. Due to mental disability you strike people or damage property or are unable to form normal social relationships.

20. You cannot normally sustain an 8 hour working day or a 5 day working week due to a medical condition or intermittent or continuous severe pain.

Part2

21. As a result of an illness or accident you are undergoing a period of habilitation or rehabilitation.

HM Revenue and Customs may ask you to nominate a professional involved in your care who can confirm how your disability affects you - for example, an occupational therapist, community or district nurse or doctor.


The ‘qualifying benefit’ test:

To get the disability element of WTC included in your assessment, you must meet one of the following conditions.

Condition A - At any time in the last 26 weeks before you claim WTC you were getting higher rate of short term incapacity benefit (IB), long-term incapacity benefit (IB), severe disablement allowance (SDA) or employment and support allowance (ESA: providing you have been entitled to it for at least 28 weeks – including linked periods and periods on statutory sick pay (SSP)).

Condition B - At any time in the last 26 weeks before you claim WTC you were getting the disability or higher pensioner premium in income support (IS), income-based jobseeker’s allowance, housing benefit (HB) or council tax benefit (CTB).

Condition C - You get disability living allowance (DLA – either component, any rate), Personal Independence Payment (PIP-either component, either rate) or attendance allowance (or an Industrial Injuries or War Pensions scheme equivalent). You must meet this condition throughout the period of your claim, not just at the start of it.

Condition D - On the date of your claim, and throughout your claim you have a Motability car or similar vehicle

Condition E: the ‘Fast Track’ - This is known as the ‘Fast Track’ because it enables people who have been off sick to return to work without having to be either off sick for six months or be on DLA, etc (as in Conditions A to D). The ‘Fast Track’ rules are that:
At the date of claim:
- you have a disability likely to last at least six months (or for the rest of your life if your death is expected within six months);
and
- your gross earnings are less than they were before your disability began, by at least 20% or £15 a week, whichever is greater;
and
you had been getting, for at least 20 weeks - ending at any time in the last eight weeks before you claim:
- ESA, SSP, occupational sick pay, short term incapacity benefit at the lower rate or income support paid on the basis of incapacity; or
- Class 1 or Class 2 national insurance contribution credits on the basis that you were incapable of work or had a limited capability for work.

Condition F - At any time in the last eight weeks before you claim WTC you:
- had been undertaking training for work (which means certain government training courses or a course of 16 hours or more a week learning occupational or vocational skills);
and
- within the eight weeks prior to the start of the training course, had been getting higher rate short-term or long-term IB, SDA or ESA (providing you have been entitled to it for at least 28 weeks – including linked periods and periods on SSP).

Condition G - You will be treated as qualifying for the disability element if, within the eight weeks before you make your claim (including renewal claims), you were entitled to the disability element of tax credits by virtue of Condition A, B, E or F. This allows those who were getting a qualifying benefit, such as ESA, to continue to get the WTC disability element for long after they stopped receiving that benefit. If you got the disability element because you met Condition C or D, as you were in receipt of, for example, DLA, you need to be getting that benefit when you make your new, or renewal claim.


OP - I have underlined the criiteria that could apply in your situation.

ab1982

I sympathise this is catch 22 for you. I guess technically you're talking about bull whatevering a bit to claim. I'd justake make sure you assesst the risk properly, the chances of getting rumbled x the impact.