NS ESA after Carers allowance

Rubyroobs

I would be grateful for any advice on whether this is possible. 
If someone has been claiming Carers allowance for the past few years and now is unwell, will the NI credits they have received be sufficient to claim NS ESA which would give them a bit more money. If they were awarded ESA, does the Carers allowance claim remain open. I'm just asking in case they were only awarded LCW and the claim ended after 12 months. 
They did not work for many years prior to claiming Carers allowance and do not qualify for any means tested benefits due to equity in rental properties. 

Largs

Yes, this happened to myself.  The rules get relaxed about National Insurance (from employment).  The only difference with me to your friend, I was working prior to claiming Carers.

Initially I was declined and when I rang in, they done something manually which awarded me the New Style (contributions based)

I can't answer the bit about Carer's Allwoance staying open as mines ended when my dad passed away.

Spoonie_Turtle

I think they still have to have enough contributions from work, but because of claiming CA those can be from any tax year, not just the last two. 

So if they've never worked I don't think they would, but if they've worked enough to have paid or been credited with class 1 NI contributions for 26 weeks within a single tax year, they will.

https://www.entitledto.co.uk/help/employment-and-support-allowance-contribution-based

Robbie64

Assuming the person continues to care for 35+ hours per week, the person can retain underlying entitlement for Carer's Allowance. The reason why it can't be paid is because the overlapping benefit rules, which is enough to ensure underlying entitlement. If someone else wishes to claim Carer's Allowance then the person should ask for the CA claim to be fully closed. Stating that the person no longer cares for 35 hours per week would be sufficient.