Moving ON to Contribution Based ESA

peadarruadh

My partner currently on income-related ESA as she suffers from a chronic illness and is unable to work. We'd like to move in together but as soon as we do she will lose her ESA as my income will be taken into account.



It would be very difficult to support her on my wage alone and if we were to add children into the equation it would be very tight indeed. We've checked various scenarios in benefits calculators and it doesn't look like we'd stand to get much support at all.



The only way forward I can see is if she were to move onto contribution based ESA. We've looked at a variety of options for employment and there's simply nothing that she'd be able to do at this point to build up NI contributions to qualify.


We had looked into the possibility of registering her as a Sole Trader after they removed her income-related ESA and making voluntary NI contributions until such a time as she qualifies. Does anyone know if this can be done?


I'm really trying to think outside the box but it seems like she's very much backed into a corner.

sammyjammy

Voluntary contributions wouldn't entitle her to Contributory ESA.

calcotti

sammyjammy wrote: »

Voluntary contributions wouldn't entitle her to Contributory ESA.

Class 2 contributions would but you don’t have to pay these if your self employed earnings are less than £6,205. If you make voluntary contributions you can choose whether to pay Class 2 or 3 contributions but to pay Class 2 you do need to be registered as self employed.

I have no idea whether if your partner registers and then pays Class 2 voluntary contributions without ever reporting any self employed earnings the HMRC and DWP are going to see through this and refuse benefits anyway.

The other thing to bear in mind is that if they register now the contributions paid would be for the 2018/2019 tax year and that this tax year will not be taken into account for an ESA claim until January 2020.

xylophone

If you cannot afford to support her and will get no benefits then you either choose to live together under very straitened circumstances or remain living separately?

And if her chronic illness is severe enough to prevent her from working, will she be fit enough to consider pregnancy and the demands of caring for young children?

calcotti

If she has a chronic illness might she qualify for PIP?

peadarruadh

xylophone wrote: »

If you cannot afford to support her and will get no benefits then you either choose to live together under very straitened circumstances or remain living separately?

And if her chronic illness is severe enough to prevent her from working, will she be fit enough to consider pregnancy and the demands of caring for young children?

You're right. I'll tell her to curl up into the corner and die.

peadarruadh

calcotti wrote: »

Class 2 contributions would but you don’t have to pay these if your self employed earnings are less than £6,205. If you make voluntary contributions you can choose whether to pay Class 2 or 3 contributions but to pay Class 2 you do need to be registered as self employed.

I have no idea whether if your partner registers and then pays Class 2 voluntary contributions without ever reporting any self employed earnings the HMRC and DWP are going to see through this and refuse benefits anyway.


The other thing to bear in mind is that if they register now the contributions paid would be for the 2018/2019 tax year and that this tax year will not be taken into account for an ESA claim until January 2020.

Thanks for that. She also wouldn't be able to make any voluntary contributions while eligible for NI credits. It would involve her having to come off ESA and receiving no benefits at all for a period even if it would be allowed.



Who would even be able to answer that question? Is it something an account would be able to advise on?

[Deleted User]

peadarruadh wrote: »

You're right. I'll tell her to curl up into the corner and die.

I see no reason for such bad manners.

Alice_Holt

peadarruadh wrote: »

You're right. I'll tell her to curl up into the corner and die.

Be sensible about this.

Your opening post is totally unrealistic.
The only way to be able to claim CB-ESA is to have the relevant earned NI contributions in the 2 previous tax years. There is no quick fix if her chronic illness precludes employment currently.
A more sensible plan would be for you to find a way to increase your earnings.

You have failed to respond to the very sensible suggestion of looking into PIP for your partner, favouring instead to be unpleasant towards other posters.

peadarruadh

Alice_Holt wrote: »

Be sensible about this.

Your opening post is totally unrealistic.
The only way to be able to claim CB-ESA is to have the relevant earned NI contributions in the 2 previous tax years. There is no quick fix if her chronic illness precludes employment currently.
A more sensible plan would be for you to find a way to increase your earnings.

You have failed to respond to the very sensible suggestion of looking into PIP for your partner, favouring instead to be unpleasant towards other posters.

I find it quite offensive that someone should suggest that having a chronic illness should preclude someone from having children. I would say my response was certainly sarcastic but hardly unpleasant. I did respond to the post about PIP, I clicked the thank you button.


It's not that easy to increase my earnings. I'm at the top of the salary scale and promoted posts are few and far between. PIP would definitely help but CB-ESA would give her the medium term security she needed to work on something to get her off in the long term.

tomtom256

peadarruadh wrote: »

I find it quite offensive that someone should suggest that having a chronic illness should preclude someone from having children. I would say my response was certainly sarcastic but hardly unpleasant. I did respond to the post about PIP, I clicked the thank you button.


It's not that easy to increase my earnings. I'm at the top of the salary scale and promoted posts are few and far between. PIP would definitely help but CB-ESA would give her the medium term security she needed to work on something to get her off in the long term.

It wasn't offensive, I think the poster was just pointing out that if one cannot work owing to an illness the chance of being able to raise a child, which is a lot harder than holding down a job, wouldn't be realistic.