Can I claim esa

bluebluecow

Hi
I used to be on incapacity benifit. Was moved to esa contribution based for a year. My advisor suggested I claimed pip which I receive enhanced care and mobility.
My husband is my carer and he was advised to claim inome support and carers and for me to come of esa.
We do get housing benefit and free school meals for the kids as hubby can work due to my varying needs.
So are we claiming the correct benifits.
Thank you

[Deleted User]

bluebluecow wrote: »

Hi
I used to be on incapacity benifit. Was moved to esa contribution based for a year. My advisor suggested I claimed pip which I receive enhanced care and mobility.
My husband is my carer and he was advised to claim inome support and carers and for me to come of esa.
We do get housing benefit and free school meals for the kids as hubby can work due to my varying needs.
So are we claiming the correct benifits.
Thank you

Sounds like you’re getting what you are entitled to. You’ve had your year of contribution based esa and can’t get income based now as you have an income support claim.

poppy12345

bluebluecow wrote: »

Hi
I used to be on incapacity benifit. Was moved to esa contribution based for a year. My advisor suggested I claimed pip which I receive enhanced care and mobility.
My husband is my carer and he was advised to claim inome support and carers and for me to come of esa.
We do get housing benefit and free school meals for the kids as hubby can work due to my varying needs.
So are we claiming the correct benifits.
Thank you

As already stated you can't claim ESA because you're already claiming IS. If you canceled IS to claim ESA and your area is a full Universal Credit (UC) area then you'll have to claim this and not ESA. You can check your area by putting your postcode in here
https://ucpostcode.entitledto.co.uk/ucdate

TELLIT01

Did you mean to say your husband CAN'T work, rather than CAN work? Was your husband working when you were moved across to ESA from IB? Did you have over £16k in savings at that time?
You should have been sent a form ESA3 when you were moved to ESA to determine whether or not you had any entitlement to the Income Related element of ESA. Did you receive and complete that form?
Your husband can only claim IS as a carer once a claim for Carers Allowance has been made.

bigbill

TELLIT01 wrote: »

Your husband can only claim IS as a carer once a claim for Carers Allowance has been made.

I know it's nit picking but could not ignore this.

It is possible to claim income support as a carer without any carers allowance being claimed as long as you are regularly and substantially looking after a disabled person who has a qualifying disability benefit.

poppy12345

bigbill wrote: »

I know it's nit picking but could not ignore this.

It is possible to claim income support as a carer without any carers allowance being claimed as long as you are regularly and substantially looking after a disabled person who has a qualifying disability benefit.

That's the first i've heard of that. A person either needs to be in reciept of Carers Allowance or have a child under 5 to be able to claim Income Support.

bigbill

As I used to get told "You don't know what you don't know"

TELLIT01

bigbill wrote: »

I know it's nit picking but could not ignore this.

It is possible to claim income support as a carer without any carers allowance being claimed as long as you are regularly and substantially looking after a disabled person who has a qualifying disability benefit.

It's not nitpicking bigbill, you are correct but it's much easier to get through the system if you do have an active CA claim. The CA claim opens the door to IS (assuming other criteria are met) without having to complete even more forms and for the status to be agreed by a Decision Maker.

epitome

bigbill wrote: »

I know it's nit picking but could not ignore this.

It is possible to claim income support as a carer without any carers allowance being claimed as long as you are regularly and substantially looking after a disabled person who has a qualifying disability benefit.

Thank you for this it is something I have been wanting to find for years. I first heard of it on Moneybox on BBC Radio 4 years ago but although I knew what I had heard on the radio but I was not fully listening so I only had an idea of what had been said and I never found out what rules they were talking about. And I did not look into it later in any meaningful way.

But now you have said this it immediately reminded me of what I heard years ago... so thanks.

epitome

bluebluecow wrote: »

Hi
I used to be on incapacity benifit. Was moved to esa contribution based for a year. My advisor suggested I claimed pip which I receive enhanced care and mobility.
My husband is my carer and he was advised to claim inome support and carers and for me to come of esa.
We do get housing benefit and free school meals for the kids as hubby can work due to my varying needs.
So are we claiming the correct benifits.
Thank you

There are two issues here:

1) Did you get all the benefit you were entitled to when the DWP changed you from IB to ESA?

2) Can you still claim ESA now?


1) You need to tell us the answers to Tellit's useful questions
When did your IB stop and ESA start?
At that time was your husband working and how much savings did you both have? Was your husband claiming any benefits in his name?
You were put in WRAG group
How much was your IB paying you?
Did you have IB and IS at the time?
How much has your ESA been paying you the last year?


2) Can you continue to claim ESA if husband clams CA & IS ?
The answer is yes, but not ESA Income Related. You can keep your existing ESA Conts claim open...you do not have to close the ESA claim. Your ESA conts claim has or will soon go down to £0.00, this is called National Insurance only ESA. and you can keep the claim open like this for National Insurance.

You should keep the ESA open like this, because PIP will not pay your National Insurance for you.

If the DWP has already closed your ESA claim, then ask them to re-open it as either you were wrongly advised by DWP it had to close or the DWP closed it without your consent, either way they should re-open it.

If you want to, you can claim ESA IR while you wait for Carer's Allowance to be awarded. Then, when CA has been awarded... change the ESA IR to ESA NI and claim Income Support

epitome

ESA IR & CA = £201.70

Income Support & CA = £219.05