Can my friend claim contribution based ESA, while in receipt of working tax credits?

fabforty

Hi, I am trying to advise a friend but I am getting confused. Hopefully someone can help.

Friend is a single parent with one child (7 years old). In Nov 2016, she took redundancy from the NHS. Her redundancy payment was £24k. She is a Housing Association tenant.

She claimed CB JSA from Feb - July 2017 receiving £73.pw. In August she started to claim CTC and receives about £62 p.w. She began self employment in September, working 16 hours p.w, and now receives WTC as well. She has been using her redundancy payment to live off - to pay rent, bills, etc, and now has approximately £11,000 remaining.

She had an accident last week and has been signed off for 12 weeks - she has a couple of fractures so it could be longer. HMRC have informed her that her tax credits will continue for 28 weeks, but what she wants to know is can she claim contribution based ESA as well? She has paid sufficient NI contributions in the relevant years to qualify, but it's not clear if having received CB JSA, prevents a claim for CB ESA, or if she can receive CB ESA while tax credits is still being paid.

TELLIT01

Previously claiming JSA Conts does not prevent her claiming ESA Conts.

epitome

The short answer is yes.

WTC in payment will not affect an ESA Conts claim.

She can claim backdated from when she stopped working 16 hours per week.

To make the claim she will be using the same tax years 14/15 & 15/16 that she used on her JSA claim this will not be a problem.

She will qualify and will get £73.10 per week.

She needs to supply her sick note and return the ESA50 when she gets it in the post usually within 3 weeks of making the claim, if not received within 3 weeks she should phone to enquire after it.

Darksparkle

She will need to declare any CB ESA as income to tax credits

fabforty

Thank you all, that's really helpful :-)