If/when to claim ESA

chella

Hi,


I have no clue as to how the benefits system works right now, so apologies for this probably repeated question, but I cant find an answer.


I am currently employed but on sick leave, I am still being paid full pay, but this should go down to half pay in the next two months.


Without going into too much detail, I have recently become ill and my Dr doesn't expect me to be mentally well enough to return to work for the foreseeable.


The mental health outreach team have suggested I look into claiming benefits, but it is a total minefield.


Can I claim ESA whilst employed, or do I need to be sacked first?


At the moment I am still on full pay, but soon I will need to put something in motion as I wont have enough to cover my monthly expenses.


Thank you for any advice.

nannytone_2

you can claim ESA after your 28 week SSP has run out

chella

I am just on full pay, I will call occ health tomorrow to clarify when I will go to half pay,this is when they should send me a certain form I think? ssp1?? or similar??

IAmWales

SSP will be part of your pay. Have you been off work for 28 weeks?

epitome

You can claim ESA from the day after your SSP runs out. You need to ask your HR department when your SSP will finish.... You will also need to ask them for an SSP1.

After SSP is finished ... regardless of whether you are still on full pay or half pay ...you can claim ESA. If you qualify...ESA C will pay you, but ESA IR will not. But when you make your claim, you should ask for ESA IR Income Related.... because this will automatically include both ESA IR and ESA C.

If you phone up ESA to make the claim late, you should ask for it to be backdated to the day after SSP ran out....

"What date do you want to claim from?"
"I want to claim from xx/xx/2017" (where xx/xx/17 is the day affter your SSP ran out - simples)

chella

I have been off for 12 weeks. On full pay.

TELLIT01

chella wrote: »

I have been off for 12 weeks. On full pay.

As SSP is paid for 28 weeks you still have 16 weeks before your SSP ends. Your employer should issue your SSP1 to you a couple of weeks before SSP ends. Once you have that you can put in your claim for ESA, you don't need to wait until the SSP actually ends although you won't be entitled to payment until that date.

bspm

Interesting....

A friend who works for the DWP has been off work since March 17th with Spinal Stenosis, hospitalised three times and still awaiting possible surgery, she has been on full pay since then but her pay drops to half pay in a few weeks.

She has been told she will not be allowed to book EWA (evening working allowance) which increased her salary quite substantially when she drops to half pay, she is using up holiday entitlement to bridge the pay gap.

From reading this thread I am led to believe she can claim ESA now too?

I have already helped her apply for PIP which has been received and she is awaiting an assessment, she also has an appointment for a Blue Badge next week so just want to check that I can inform her to make a claim for ESA too.

Her case has now gone for a decision on whether her illness can be supported for much longer and she does have the backing of the Union so not too worried about that, just want to make sure she gets all she is entitled to.

Thank you for any information on this.

Tomsdottir

a) In the case of your friend, yes, she can claim once her entitlement to SSP has been exhausted. If you go online to gov.uk and type in "claim ESA" you'll find the phone number to make a claim and the information you'll need to hand when making the call.
b)Minefield is about right. I'm not sure what your housing costs are. If you're paying rent, are you getting housing benefit? If so, have you notified the council of the drop in your income? This should mean you qualify for more benefit. If you haven't claimed, you could claim now, from your local authority (their website will tell you how to do so). If they refuse to accept that this represents a permanent drop in your income, you can appeal this decision.
You may also qualify for council tax reduction - if not now, then when you claim ESA.
The introduction of Universal Credit has made a complicated picture even more complicated., We hear every day about people who should have been allowed to make a claim for ESA being incorrectly directed to claim UC. So it can be a good idea to get face to face advice about benefits/income maximisation from a CAB or similar. If you can possibly get their help in completing the ESA 50 when that is sent out to you, that is really important too. If you can't, then have a look at the information on ESA on websites like Disability Rights. I hope this helps.

poppy12345

Tomsdottir wrote: »

a) In the case of your friend, yes, she can claim once her entitlement to SSP has been exhausted. If you go online to gov.uk and type in "claim ESA" you'll find the phone number to make a claim and the information you'll need to hand when making the call.
b)Minefield is about right. I'm not sure what your housing costs are. If you're paying rent, are you getting housing benefit? If so, have you notified the council of the drop in your income? This should mean you qualify for more benefit. If you haven't claimed, you could claim now, from your local authority (their website will tell you how to do so). If they refuse to accept that this represents a permanent drop in your income, you can appeal this decision.
You may also qualify for council tax reduction - if not now, then when you claim ESA.
The introduction of Universal Credit has made a complicated picture even more complicated., We hear every day about people who should have been allowed to make a claim for ESA being incorrectly directed to claim UC. So it can be a good idea to get face to face advice about benefits/income maximisation from a CAB or similar. If you can possibly get their help in completing the ESA 50 when that is sent out to you, that is really important too. If you can't, then have a look at the information on ESA on websites like Disability Rights. I hope this helps.

The OP is still on FULL pay so more than likely wouldn't qualify for HB yet.

Why do your posts sound very familiar....:cool:

bspm

Like poppy has said my friend is still on full pay for probably two more weeks, she is married and has a mortgage and this would be covered by her husband so no worries there. She will also not qualify for CTR due to savings.

All I asked was whether she could still claim for ESA when in theory still being paid, albeit half pay, didn't ask nor need to know anything about means tested benefits.