ESA eligibility not enough NI contributions?

calcotti

sarahdh said:

I just found this, does the ‘aggregate’ mean the average over the last two years? 

My reading is that each year is looked at separately. Aggregate means you add together relevant earnings but I believe this applies to each year separately.
”..the earnings factor in each of those years is not less than 50 times the LEL for those last two complete relevant income tax years.”
You can of course ask ESA to look at these two years but be prepared to be rejected again.

if have understood it correctly the significance of the aggregation provision is that it means the 26 week or 50 week requirement can be met over a period less than 26 or 50 weeks.
This year the Lower Earnings Limit is £120/week.
5 weeks earning £120 each week is equivalent to 5 weeks.
4 weeks at £150 each week are also equivalent to 5 weeks.
Note however that 2 weeks at £119 and 2 weeks at £121 is only worth 2 weeks because the earnings below LEL are disregarded as no NI is earned in these weeks.

The upper earnings limit is £962 and any earnings above this will be disregarded so it is not possible to meet the earnings factor equivalent to 50 weeks time LEL without working in at least 7 weeks.