esa and holiday abroad?

woodbine wrote: »

getting esa support group inc and con based

tele them today to advise we are going to spain for 10 days in 2 weeks time(as you should)told someone would phone me back,they did and said they would send out a form then they would decide if my esa would continue to be paid or not
i was surprised as everything i have read says you can do this for 4 weeks with no break in benefit(which was what happened 4 years ago when we got income support/incapacity)
tbh the woman i spoke to didnt seem to have a clue,she suggested that the cont based bit might still be paid but not the income based ????

anyone any recent experience of this or definitive answer?

thanks in advance

You are NOT allowed holidays and such luxaries if you are on ESA. Contribution based benefits can be paid however with income based I think 3 months was the limit and with DLA 6 months (im not sure but i think that was it some months back).

woodbine wrote: »

would it be an idea to send a copy of the holiday confirmation which shows the dates?

You can notify them, but payments will continue if you away for less than 28 days (Income related ESA) and longer if you are on Contributory ESA.

Lin

sh1981 wrote: »

You are NOT allowed holidays and such luxaries if you are on ESA. Contribution based benefits can be paid however with income based I think 3 months was the limit and with DLA 6 months (im not sure but i think that was it some months back).

Within the UK on ESA you can go on holiday for as long as you want. Outside UK only for 28 days max for ESA IR, For ESA C can be longer (within the EU) by agreement between claimant and DWP.

sh1981 wrote: »

ABSOLUTELY WRONG!!! If you leave the country, whether you are on CA, IS, ESA, JSA whatever, you have to inform them, even HMRC. You cannot even think of, and I mean even dream of, having a holiday abroad without informing the respective benefits agency.

Is that block caps and exclamation mark really necessary? I said "AFAIK" (as far as I know) and I said "I used to have a link to a document which said this", so you might want to take some caution when making statements like that because you could be wrong.

HB58 wrote: »

The paperwork that comes with the ESA award stated that the DWP should be informed if the claimant is going to be away from home for a day or more. Of course, we all always do that ...

Always wise to tell them. But it is not required (apparently).

Here, this is not the one I had before but it is similar and proves the point.
https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/269165/wp-pg-chapter-5.pdf

Participant has a holiday planned (within GB)
14. The process for participants taking holidays differs depending on their claimant group:
• All ESA claimant groups are not limited to the amount of time they are allowed to spend away from home within Great Britain; also they are not expected to notify yourselves or the Benefit Centre if they go on holiday.

Participant is going abroad temporarily (including holidays abroad)
18. ESA claimants can go abroad for a period of up to 4 weeks and do not have to notify Jobcentre Plus that they are doing so.


ALSO (rogerblack you might be interested) I found this on that document which answers one of the questions which has been bugging me about Work program JSA - to ESA
Mandatory participant moves from JSA to ESA
27. Where you are notified that a mandatory JSA participant has ceased their JSA to claim ESA, they remain attached with you and their participation requirements should be treated as the same as those of a Voluntary ESA participant until the outcome of the Work Capability Assessment (WCA)

Now the question is .... What are the rules about non-participation for a voluntary ESA participant?

What is the form called? what number on the front cover bottom corner?