Big changes to ESA amounts in 2020/21 ???

calcotti

To summarise my reading of the guidance -

• The transitional addition will end at the beginning of April
• The pension income will continue to be disregarded for contribution based ESA
• I am not sure what would happen to any new pension income

When your friend reaches State Pension age, whenever that may be, the ESA will end as his State Pension starts.

If you find out anymore yourself I would be grateful if you post back and update us.

EDIT: The law has changed in respect of the transitional addition since I posted the above - see later post.

calcotti

UPDATE: The law has changed in respect of the transitional protection payments.
Regulations laid before parliament yesterday 6th Feb 2020 have abolished the end date for the transitional protection additions. See https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2020/102/made

"Regulation 2 of these Regulations removes the end date of 5th April 2020 for the payment of transitional additions to ESA claimants. Payment of a claimant’s transitional addition will now end when it reduces to nil or when the claimant’s entitlement to ESA comes to an end."

OP, this means your friend will indeed see no change to their ESA payments. Perhaps DWP were aware this change would occur prior to the regulations being laid and the letter they sent reflects this.

coachman12

calcotti said:

UPDATE: 
OP, this means your friend will indeed see no change to their ESA payments. Perhaps DWP were aware this change would occur prior to the regulations being laid and the letter they sent reflects this.
Thank you so much calcotti. How do you find a new legislative provision only enacted yesterday so quickly ???? You have been a Godsend to someone who has been worrying a great deal whilst also being severely disabled. Good luck with all you do , especially with the highly erudite postings relating to benefit concerns. Cheers !!!

calcotti

coachman12 said:

How do you find a new legislative provision only enacted yesterday so quickly ?

There's another site I visit where it was posted and it caught my eye because of this thread.

anotherquestion

I hope you guys don't mind me butting in here as the question seems to have  been cleared up and I don't want to start another thread along the same lines.
Excellent discussion, as I find myself in the same situation as regards an occupational pension and on ESA (cb) got IB (cb) before april 2001 and pension before that date as well, so its good to know that the 
disregard as regards pension will not end in april 20.

However the ESA CB) transitional protection I now get was because we have a child and I get an adult addition for my partner which I initially believed was to end in april 20 but on readling Calcotti's excellent reply that now seems to be not the case.


Now our child has high care needs get high DLA in both components so my partner is going to apply for carers allowance in april 20 as I expected to loose the transitional protection in ESA, as I understand it we can't claim both, as she has a so called underlying entitlement, so just wondering what is the best way to go about this? If I remember correctly looking at an old carers allowance form several years ago there was a question asking if anyone else got money for the applicant. If that question is still there do I just get my partner to fill in the details of what I consider my ESA transitional protection to be for?

Overall we would be better off money wise for her to claim carers allowance as I would loose £55 which is taxable, I get just over £166 a week, she wouldn't fall in to tax bracket above her personal allowance.


Secondly as my ESA re-assessment usually come up every three years still 18 months at least to go, I am a bit worried that someone at DWP looking at my ESA details at their end might actually start that re-assessment process sooner?

Once again my apologies if I really should have started a separate thread.

Thanks.

calcotti

Contribution based ESA and CA are overlapping benefits. Anybody can claim both but they will not be paid both, because ESA is worth more they get paid ESA instead of CA. If you are the one claiming contribution based ESA and your wife claims CA then you will still be paid ESA and she will be paid CA.

In respect of the ESA adult addition my reading of regulation 20 of the original regulations https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2010/875/regulation/20/made is that if your wife claims CA you will lose the adult addition in your ESA. However if this is £55/week you will be better off because CA is £66/week (and will rise in April).

As regards ESA reassessment this can occur at any time but I can't see any reason why these changes to the rules would be likely to trigger an earlier reassessment.

As regards filling in the CA form I don't recall that this includes questions about amounts, just what other benefits are received. If you have to just scribble an explanation on the page of how it is made up.

anotherquestion

Thanks a lot Calcotti, how I arrived at the £55 figure is as I understand it the rate of ESA is £111 or so, the difference between that and the amount I get £166 or so is £55. I am sure I have  a letter from DWP that explains a breakdown of it, though it just refers to it as transitional protection, but as it was intended In IB (cb) as an adult addition I am sure that it is still regarded as that under ESA though no mention of it in that way in letters to me, though does seem to be pointed out clearly in your link at 2d.

I understand that applying for carers allowance wont trigger a UC claim as we are better off on tax credits.
Thanks. once again for your help.

calcotti

As you say, applying for Carer’s Allowance will not trigger a need to claim UC.

You must tell Tax Credits about the Carer’s Allowance and changes to your contribution based ESA as both are counted as income when calculating Tax Credit entitlement.

Note that if, in the future, your wife ceases to be eligible for Carer’s Allowance (for example, if she earns more than £123/week) you will not, as I understand it, get the transitional addition back.

anotherquestion

Thanks ever so much Calcotti, just one last little thing I just thought of, does the fact that I already get an adult addition for my partner though treated as transitional protection in ESA ,could somehow disqualify her getting carers allowance, what I mean is when she fills in the carers application form and gives the details of what I am getting on her behalf and willing to losse, they might simply say,  that is not possible, you are not allowed to give up the transitional protection in your ESA, so she gets nothing as regards carers?

calcotti

She is entitled to claim Carer’s Allowance if she meets the qualifying conditions of providing 35 hours of care to someone receiving a relevant disability benefit and does not earn more than £123/week. She will not be excluded from claiming because you receive the adult addition in ESA. What will change, if I have understood it correctly, is your entitlement to the adult addition.

Transitional additions were intended to be temporary.