Help please as i'm unsure

marcus6

Hi all your help again would be great please

I just got the form, and on looking though it it don't make sense, the part i'm at is Part 4 About your Disability, illness or Health condition, that's ok and then next page is where i sign to give consent for DWP to check with my doctors, but then the next page is part 5 about work?? well i haven't worked so i tick the box "no" then it says go to Part 4 about other benefits, but part 4 is where i just come from??? Part 6 is about other benefits??

your thoughts on this should i ring then up again ?? plus this form is 52 pages long is that right??

poppy12345

Are you sure that's what it says? There's an ESA3 form here. https://gmwrag.files.wordpress.com/2016/05/esa3.pdf For part 5 it asks about work. so you tick no and then it asks you to go to part 6 and not part 4. 52 pages is correct.

marcus6

Yea look my one says go to part 4, on looking though the form it would seem i have a very old form it don't even have PIP on the form only DLA lol, 
 

Newcad

There are various different versions of the ESA3.

(I've got examples of about 8 different versions of ESA3 saved on this laptop alone).

Some are different revisions from different years. (That one in Poppy's link is quite an old one from 2014 - look at the bottom right of the front sheet).
Some are for particular or special situations.

Many of them have the same paragraphs/questions but with different part numbers.
Particularly the special ones when they have squeezed extra questions in, or left some questions out.

What you appear to have there looks like simply a numbering error.
But it's fairly obvious that they don't want you to go backwards to what you have already filled in, so ignore the "4" and go forward to "About other benefits"

OhWow

Newcad said:

It does seem pretty odd that a person with NRPF is seemingly being told they have to make a benefit claim.

But it's the way that the DWP do it, and as long as no benefits money actually gets paid to the person with NRPF then it's all fine and legal.

It's done to link the couple.

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/universal-credit-and-couples-an-introduction/universal-credit-further-information-for-couples

OhWow

marcus6 said:

Newcad said:

They will probably try to push you to claim UC, even though in the circumstances you don't have to.

However as you don't get the SDP then you will probably be better off on UC anyway, and I think you said you had already confirmed that.

Just in case you do decide to claim UC, either now or later:
With a couple one of who has NRPF the situation with claiming UC gets a bit strange.
Of course the person with NRPF cannot claim benefits, or benefit as a partner of a claimant, but is still counted as a partner for earned income, savings, capital, etc.
What happens is the DWP require that both members of the couple make a claim for UC and the person with NRPF has to have a verification interview .
The person with NRPF can't have a Claimant Commitment because they can't be a claimant, so doesn't have to attend a Claimant Commitment interview.

It does seem pretty odd that a person with NRPF is seemingly being told they have to make a benefit claim.
But it's the way that the DWP do it, and as long as no benefits money actually gets paid to the person with NRPF then it's all fine and legal.
Once it's all sorted out internally at the DWP it becomes a single person claim, plus a non-claiming partner.

This explains it in much more detail, it's not particularly easy to follow but as you have already been dealing with the Visa etc. then I'm sure you are used to reading stuff like this: https://medium.com/adviser/universal-credit-couple-claims-where-one-member-has-no-recourse-to-public-funds-e5aaf9ceac43

Thank you for this,

well i made the call to ESA today and waited for 40 min before someone picked up the phone, and the guy on the other end was very helpful and i said i needed to add my wife to the claim and he said yea that's fine!, i said to him but she is on a spouse visa and he said yea that's fine i'll send you out the form all you do is fill it in and send back to us, i then said to him is that it!!? he said yes it's very easy now not like it use to be...... omg i thought it was gonna be a nightmare to do

Benefit staff are not immigration experts. It's up to the migrant with No Recourse to Public Funds restriction, to ensure that they don't take public funds and breach their visa.

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/public-funds

Robbie64

I would advise that the OP gets help from Citizens Advice about completing the ESA3. It's important that no benefit is paid for the wife as this could cause problems. What should happen is that the wife is noted as living in the household but also that no benefit is paid in respect of her. Part 19 (Special Circumstances) of the ESA3 includes a question regarding her having No Recourse To Public Funds but it must be completed properly.

marcus6

Robbie64 said:

I would advise that the OP gets help from Citizens Advice about completing the ESA3. It's important that no benefit is paid for the wife as this could cause problems. What should happen is that the wife is noted as living in the household but also that no benefit is paid in respect of her. Part 19 (Special Circumstances) of the ESA3 includes a question regarding her having No Recourse To Public Funds but it must be completed properly.

Thanks but yea i'll do it on my own and if i make a mistake i can only blame myself, but i have it all covered, yea i seen that part 19 i have to send passport and my wife BRP card, i'll also add a cover letter regarding NO Public funds is to be paid regarding my wife!! the only thing that will happen is i might have to pay more council tax as i'm not the only living in the house now!! but that's a small price to pay!!