ESA/ holiday pay

pope

I am on ESA contribution based. My employer has paid me 5 weeks holiday which I had been collecting while off sick also my yearly service award which totals to £1490 and £300 service award will this affect my ESA?

Thanks

Robbie64

It won't affect your ESA. The holiday pay and possibly your yearly service award will count as taxable income so may affect how much tax you pay as your ESA is taxable income.

rarees1

Robbie's right.  It won't affect your ESA amount, but if you also claim Income related ESA to top up your money, or Housing Benefit for your rent, they could be affected.

Robbie64

rarees1 said:

Robbie's right.  It won't affect your ESA amount, but if you also claim Income related ESA to top up your money, or Housing Benefit for your rent, they could be affected.

It's contributory ESA, It wouldn't be ESA (Income related) as no new claims for that benefit have been possible for a while. Housing Benefit too.

pope

I don't claim housing benefit or income based ESA. 

poppy12345

It is New style ESA you're claiming, which is a contributions based benefit only. For the majoirty of people it hasn't been possible to make a new claim for Income Related ESA since end of December 2018.

GiroBoy

Just on a side note - if you were claiming 'contribution based' ESA i.e you claimed prior to 1 January 2019, it is still possible to add Income related ESA to your claim.

poppy12345

GiroBoy said:

Just on a side note - if you were claiming 'contribution based' ESA i.e you claimed prior to 1 January 2019, it is still possible to add Income related ESA to your claim.

For the majority of people it wasn't possible to claim the old contributions based ESA since end of December 2018 because that was when all areas became UC.

I also believe that the OP is claiming New style ESA because they didn't claim this until sometime this year, based on previous threads. https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6442768/esa-new-style#latest