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Claiming new style ESA after carers allowance.

Can any of you experts advise please. If someone has been claiming carers allowance for many years and has to stop caring ( carers allowance cancelled) due to terminal illness, can that person then claim new style ESA based on NI contributions credited whilst being a carer? Thanks.

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  • calcotti
    calcotti Posts: 15,696 Forumite
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    edited 6 July 2021 at 9:06PM
    Rubyroobs said:
    Can any of you experts advise please. If someone has been claiming carers allowance for many years and has to stop caring ( carers allowance cancelled) due to terminal illness, can that person then claim new style ESA based on NI contributions credited whilst being a carer? Thanks.
    The short answer is - yes they can claim new style ESA provided they have paid, or been treated as having paid, NI for 26 weeks in a single tax year at some point of their life.

    The longer answer is - yes but not exactly in the way you describe.

    The credits from CA allow them to meet the condition requiring two years of credits or contributions in 2018-19 and 2019-20. However the credits do not meet the requirement for 26 weeks of contributions in one of those years.

    Nonetheless because they were receiving Carer’s Allowance there is a relaxation of the contributions condition which allows it to met from any year of their life. Sometimes ESA fail to apply this relaxation so do persist if the claim is initially refused.
    Information I post is for England unless otherwise stated. Some rules may be different in other parts of UK.
  • Rubyroobs
    Rubyroobs Posts: 1,121 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Name Dropper
    Thanks Calcotti, that's really helpful.
  • calcotti
    calcotti Posts: 15,696 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper
    Information I post is for England unless otherwise stated. Some rules may be different in other parts of UK.
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