Contribution based ESA.

longleggedhair · 21 July at 7:24PM

I have been receiving the above for several years. Due to capital and receipt of private pensions I wouldn’t be entitled to claim universal credit.

I was horrified when I heard the government were intending to make ESA (cb) available only for one year. I have investigated and it appears from some sources they are intending to allow those already in receipt to continue on ESA, and change it to one year for new claimants. But I can’t find anything concrete. Does anyone more informed know what they are intending. This is a big part of my income and if I lost it I would be in a mess.

8dayweek · 21 July at 7:37PM

New Style ESA is limited to 1 year if you’re placed in the Work Related Activity Group (WRAG) or is paid “indefinitely” if you’re placed in the Support Group.

(I say “indefinitely” as I mean until you’re reassessed and placed in a different group, or you reach State Pension age, or your NS ESA claim closes for another reason).

There’s no real specifics about the “new” contributions based benefit that was announced in the Green Paper - just that it will roll together new style JSA and ESA as Unemployment Insurance benefit and be time limited and introduced approximately 2028/2029.

Northern_Wanderer · 21 July at 9:40PM

You said that you had capital, you would be expected to live on that until your capital reduced to below £16k if your ESA ended. Your private pension above £85/wk should counted as income for ESA and it reduced 50p in the £1.

Muttleythefrog · 21 July at 11:12PM

There are no real details, as advised above, on the new time limited benefit combining C Based/NS JSA/ESA. It's some way off. I would work on the possibility it could happen in 3-5 years and it could affect existing claimants... but in politics over this timeline there are a lot of coulds... you saw what happened to recent reforms over a single weekend!