ESA conditions

Lostatsea

Hello. I have a couple of questions relating to ESA conditions a) and b).

I was self employed until april 2022, I paid full contributions for voluntary class 2 nic's in the 20/21, 21/22 tax years, so I belive I would meet condition a) but my net earnings were however very low in both years(beneath 26 weeks at the threshold/low income level, earnings less than £120/week?). I stopped trading due to ill health.

 I am currently on LCWRA for UC. Will I meet the two conditions for new style ESA, my worry is my self employed earnings were too low, condition b) or does that condition apply to employees only?. Also, would I be automticaly placed in the support group without reassement/uc50 form.

Thank you.

poppy123456

I'm no expert on the qualifying conditions for New style ESA because they always confuse me. Are you aware that if you do claim this then there's no financial gain because it will just be deducted in full from any UC entitlement.

There are some advantages to claiming it though because it's not means tested like UC and pensions of up to £85 per week are ignored. You will also receive class 1 NI, whereas UC you only receive class 3.

If you do claim it then you'll receive the Support Group amount from the 14th week of your claim. (you won't need another WCA)

calcotti

If you paid NI contributions for the two years then you do are eligible for ESA, it doesn’t matter what your earnings were.

As advised by poppy, claiming ESA as well as UC will make no difference on your total income because ESA will be deducted from UC. 

However you will get Class 1 NI credits and if your other circumstances change in some way that future excludes you from UC you would still get ESA. 

However if the ESA is such that you might not get UC I would delay ESA until later in the year because getting ESA and not UC would exclude you from Cost of Living extra payments.

Lostatsea

Thank you Poppy and Calcotti, that does answer my questions in full. Take care.