ESA query

Hi I'm new to this site and the forum so bear with me please. I'm trying to find information about a change in circumstance to living with a partner who works full time.

I recently moved in with my partner after being told by the benefits enquiry line that he wouldn't lose benefits as ESA was contribution based and DLA is a personal allowance. There's a bit of a story next but I read that you don't give individual advice so just wondering where the best place is to start looking on here as my partner's ESA has been stopped but left live to keep NI contributions up to date and his DLA will continue. Have a meeting with CAB tomorrow but wanted more information myself. They didn't ask about household expenses just how many hours I work and apparently because it's 35 hours that's the cut off and he'll get nothing!

Anyone have ideas what to do?

Thanks.

mo68 wrote: Hi I'm new to this site and the forum so bear with me please. I'm trying to find information about a change in circumstance to living with a partner who works full time.

I recently moved in with my partner after being told by the benefits enquiry line that he wouldn't lose benefits as ESA was contribution based and DLA is a personal allowance. There's a bit of a story next but I read that you don't give individual advice so just wondering where the best place is to start looking on here as my partner's ESA has been stopped but left live to keep NI contributions up to date and his DLA will continue. Have a meeting with CAB tomorrow but wanted more information myself. They didn't ask about household expenses just how many hours I work and apparently because it's 35 hours that's the cut off and he'll get nothing!

Anyone have ideas what to do?

Thanks.

Hi m68,

Welcome to Benefits and Work

The information that you mention seems to be correct.

If your partner was in receipt of CB ESA only and DLA, your hours of work or income as a result of such work would not affect their CB ESA, as CB ESA is not means tested.

Reading between the lines here, and please correct me if I am wrong, your partner was in receipt of CB ESA in The WRAG of ESA, and payment of their CB ESA in The WRAG has ceased due to the fact that their 365 days entitlement to payment of CB ESA in The WRAG has been exhausted.

As explained in this FAQ :

12 Month Limit for ESA(CB)

As you have moved in with your partner, they will not be entitled to any Income Related (IR) ESA, as your income and hours of work preclude this, see :

24 hour work rule for ESA(IR)

Asset rule for ESA(IR)

Therefore, your partner is now only entitled to NI Credits, whereas they may have been entitled to IR ESA if you had not moved in with them ?

Your partner's DLA will continue to be paid, as this is not means tested.

If this is the case, unless your partner has worked and received the necessary NI Contributions within the last couple of years, then the only way that they will again be entitled to CB ESA, is if they can gain entry to The Support Group (SG), as the result of a supersession/review that they could request as the result of a deterioration in their medical conditions, or they suffer from different medical conditions, and they therefore now qualify for The SG.

Qualifying for the Support Group

Or, if they are placed into The SG at some future reassessment instigated by The DWP.

Barring that, the only other way that they would be entitled to CB ESA again, as things stand, would be to gain the necessary NI Contributions through employment.

A late appeal could be made against The WRAG award, to gain entry to The SG, but this is only possible if no more than 13 months has elapsed since the date of the letter that your partner would have received informing them that they were in The WRAG.

If I have this totally wrong, please reply to this topic, and let me know.

bro58

Thanks for your response. I found the information and had come to the same conclusions. The only thing that I still have hope on is that his ESA (CB) seems only to have started from May this year. I'm assuming if this is the case and the DWP just took ages to move him to this benefit that the 365 days run from then and not from when ESA was introduced in 2012.

I do find it difficult to believe that he was receiving any kind of contribution based benefit as I think he has been on some sort of incapacity benefit for about 8 years. Not sure how he can have any NI contributions that would still allow for ESA (CB).

Thanks for your help although it's not the answer I was looking for the site is very informative ..... once I found the right bits.

Morag

Sorry just to be clear. If his ESA didn't start til April 2013 then he should still be receiving ESA (CB) until the end of the 365 day period?

Hi sorry got the wrong benefit it was Income Support he had before and it ran right up to a letter in May this year saying he was being changed to ESA. I take it this means he should still be receiving ESA (CB) for 365 days from the letter informing of the change?