New Style ESA Advice

Jab87

I started receiving New Style ESA just before Christmas. I had no clue about the benefit until I was advised by AGE UK after I contacted them to see what benefits I would be entitled to if any. I have been receiving New Style ESA since, but have recently found out it can be backdated by up to 3 months. I was in the same predicament as I am now since I retired early last year, but didn’t know anything about ESA. Would I be entitled to apply for backdated payments from 3 months before?

KatrinaWaves

It says you are online, so I would suggest asking.

tacpot12

As far as I know, you can't change the date of your claim, but you might be able to ask for it to be backdated for upto three months. I would try to do so asap. It would be useful if you could report back on whether this was successful in your case.

Be aware that contribution-based ESA is only paid for 365 days, so if you are allowed to move your claim date to the earliest possible date, it will bring forward the point at which your ESA stops by the same amount.

Age UK should have told you about any ability to backdate your claim, so you might have a complaint against Age UK if they did not tell you about this. I don't think Age UK will pay you anything, even if they agree they made a mistake. You complaint would however be a prompt for them to improve their training.

calcotti

tacpot12 wrote: »

Be aware that contribution-based ESA is only paid for 365 days, so if you are allowed to move your claim date to the earliest possible date, it will bring forward the point at which your ESA stops by the same amount.

That depends on the outcome of the Work Capability Assessment. If placedin the Support Group the new style ESA will be paid indefinitely. If not placed in the Support Group the 365 day limit is correct.

calcotti

Jab87 wrote: »

Would I be entitled to apply for backdated payments from 3 months before?

I doubt this will be possible but there is no harm in asking the DWP. Be aware however that even if the DWP would allow this in principle in order to get backdating you would need a Fit Note covering the period and your GP probably won’t do a backdated one (not a problem if you’ve already got one already obviously).

Do you have any pension income having retired early, if so are the DWP aware of it? Any pension income over £85/week reduces the ESA payable by 50% of the amount in excess of £85.

Jab87

What is katrinawaves talking about?

Jab87

Thank you all for your help.

KatrinaWaves

Jab87 wrote: »

What is katrinawaves talking about?

When I looked online, multiple sites said it can be backdated for 3 months with 'no conditions needing to be met

Maybe they are misworded and that is to do with the time between application and assessment 'backdating' to the rate you are awarded.

https://www.disabledviewuk.com/useful-information/esa/

This is one I looked at, as well as

https://www.housingsystems.co.uk/Portals/0/Documents/Briefings/2017/Universal%20Credit,%20finishing%20work%20and%20contributorty%20benefits.pdf?ver=2017-06-09-151528-337

and: http://www.cpag.org.uk/content/claiming-esa

Apologies if the info is incorrect, it was just cited across so many places I figured they wouldnt all be wrong!

poppy12345

KatrinaWaves wrote: »

When I looked online, multiple sites said it can be backdated for 3 months with 'no conditions needing to be met

Maybe they are misworded and that is to do with the time between application and assessment 'backdating' to the rate you are awarded.

https://www.disabledviewuk.com/useful-information/esa/

This is one I looked at, as well as

https://www.housingsystems.co.uk/Portals/0/Documents/Briefings/2017/Universal%20Credit,%20finishing%20work%20and%20contributorty%20benefits.pdf?ver=2017-06-09-151528-337

and: http://www.cpag.org.uk/content/claiming-esa

Apologies if the info is incorrect, it was just cited across so many places I figured they wouldnt all be wrong!

This may have been possible had the OP requested being backdated wen they started their claim. As the claim started before Christmas it's most likely not possible now.

calcotti

KatrinaWaves wrote: »

When I looked online, multiple sites said it can be backdated for 3 months with 'no conditions needing to be met

Maybe they are misworded and that is to do with the time between application and assessment 'backdating' to the rate you are awarded.

https://www.disabledviewuk.com/useful-information/esa/

This is one I looked at, as well as

https://www.housingsystems.co.uk/Portals/0/Documents/Briefings/2017/Universal%20Credit,%20finishing%20work%20and%20contributorty%20benefits.pdf?ver=2017-06-09-151528-337

and: http://www.cpag.org.uk/content/claiming-esa

Apologies if the info is incorrect, it was just cited across so many places I figured they wouldnt all be wrong!

You need to avoid looking at old information which refers to ESA. New claims are all for 'new style' ESA which has slightly different rules and is solely a contribution based benefit (unlike the old ESA which has both a contribution based element and a means tested element). Having said that the backdating rules are the same. An ESA claim can be backdated for 3 months but, as others have said, this is intended to be done at the time the claim is made. I have never come across anyway successfully extending a claim backwards after it has started and would be surprised if this is possible.

KatrinaWaves

calcotti wrote: »

You need to avoid looking at old information which refers to ESA. New claims are all for 'new style' ESA which has slightly different rules and is solely a contribution based benefit (unlike the old ESA which has both a contribution based element and a means tested element). Having said that the backdating rules are the same. An ESA claim can be backdated for 3 months but, as others have said, this is intended to be done at the time the claim is made. I have never come across anyway successfully extending a claim backwards after it has started and would be surprised if this is possible.

In my defence, TWO of the links talk about new style ESA and UC, there is only one which is older, but that has the same info re backdating.

I didnt think a huge amount of time had passed considering the claim began just before Christmas, as the links seemed to give a blanket 'you dont need to give a reason' which seems unusual as most bens I've dealt with require really good reasons for backdating!