UC v Contribution based ESA - savings criteria.

Hi Team
A member of my family receives Contribution based ESA which is reduced due to his occupational pension. His savings however are disregarded as his entitlement is not income related.

I am currently trying to help someone with UC review. The original application entitled him to contribution based UC & he qualified for the LWRCA element. (works part time). I was wondering if the contribution based UC would allow any savings to go above £16,000 as it does with the CB ESA ?
From what I can gather on UC the £16,000 ruling seems a blanket one. But I'm not sure.
I hope you can help.
Thank you.

Hi Gordon

Thank you so much for your very useful reply.

I'm just wondering why would the Jobcentre would put someone onto UC & not CB ESA 2 years ago?

The applicant had enough contributions at the time following expiry of SSP. And should have been able to benefit from the savings disregard.
I understand that CB ESA could have still allowed him to work 16 hours?

Is the CB ESA (or new style), not an option for applicants any more? Or was it not 2 years ago ?

Thank you.

Sorry for the confusion.

I was comparing 2 different cases.

The first has CB ESA, as of many years ago.

But the newest applicant was put onto UC automatically & not given the option of CB ESA. This was 2 years ago.

I was wondering why he was not put onto ESA & only considered for UC. As if he had been put onto CB ESA then there would have been a savings disregard.

I hope this is clearer.

Thank you.