ESA AND BANK BALANCE

HOLLY wrote: I would be able to claim Contribution Based ESA but prior to the insurance money being lodged our savings were well under £10,000. If I go on to contribution based ESA and further down the line would I be able to apply for the income related ESA and if so how long would I have to leave it to apply.

Thanks

Holly

ESA(CB) will always be paid if the claimant meets the Contribution Conditions, so the question is whether you would be entitled to an ESA(IR) top-up.

In principle, if your assets and savings are less than £16,000 you can ask the DWP to see whether you are eligible, the difficulty as Mrs H has posted will be how the DWP view the disposal of the insurance money, the DWP will primarily be looking at whether the disposal was done in order to claim ESA(IR), however, this will be complicated by the fact that you have paid your mortgage of early, the DWP's normal position is that debts where there is no on-going financial penalty (e.g. credit card debt). would not be expected to be cleared early.

The thing you obviously need to avoid is a retrospective penalty for clearing the debt, so I would recommend that you disclose all of the facts to the DWP to avoid this.

I would also recommend that you get face to face advice from a trained advisor as this may be as much down to presentation of the facts as the actual facts themselves, which is something that we cannot help with on the forum. Do an internet search for "welfare advice" with your postcode, town or county.

Gordon