ESA and occupational pension payments

evertonian1968

HI 
I'm looking for some advice, I'm currently receiving contribution based ESA and in a support group I have been reciept of this benefit since 1998 and was migrated from the old incapacity benefit . Also I receive health Insurance payments which totals £900 per month. I recently recieved a letter from the dreaded DWP asking questions about my insurance payments. Considering I have claiming this benefit prior to 6th April 2001 does anybody know wether they can stop my payments ?

calcotti

If the insurance was arranged by your employer and your employer paid more than 50% of the premiums the health insurance payments are treated in the same way as a pension from when your employment ended. The first £85/week is ignored. There is a 50% deduction of the value of the pension above £85 from the ESA payable. A pension/health insurance payment of £900 is equivalent £207.69/week so the ESA deduction would be £61.34/week reducing the UC payable from £113.55/week to £52.21 (i've ignored any transitional uplift you may be getting as a result of the transfer from IB)

If you paid more than 50% of the premiums yourself then the insurance payments should be ignored.

evertonian1968

Hi thanks for your comment.  I've been getting the health Insurance payments arranged by employer since 1998 . I cant understand why the DWP haven't reduced my ESA previously ? 
Regards

poppy12345

Did they know about them?

calcotti

If you have previously told them and they have failed to act on that information then it is official error and they can not recover any overpayment. If they were never told any overpayment will be recoverable.

However - are you still employed? If so the payments are ignored. As per my first post they are only taken into account once your employment has ended at which point they fall to be treated like a pension.