Disability premium rates

pension

After over 5 years of appealing a nil ESA contribution claim I have been. Awarded low rate disability premium I think this should be high rate. I receive Enhanced pip for living and mobility and I am severely disabled and I am in the support category for work and have an occupational ill health pension please can you tell me who can advise if I should have been awarded the high rate disability premium.

Kimmy87

A few questions:

Is any of your ESA Income related?

If the answer is no, then you will not qualify for Severe Disability Premium as this is only paid with IR ESA.

If the answer is yes, then:

Are you single or living with a partner?

If living with a partner, do they receive benefits, if so which ones?

Do you live alone?

Does anyone recieve Carers Allowance or Carers Element of UC for looking after you?

poppy123456

It hasn’t been possible to claim the old contributions based ESA since December 2018. If it’s New style ESA you’re claiming there’s no disability premiums payable.

pension

The original ESA claim dates back 2017/18 and was based on my low occupational pension income. I live alone and no one receives carers allowance

poppy123456

Your pension will reduce any Income Related ESA £1 for £1. If your ESA is either contributions based or New style then any pension of up to £85/week is ignored. For every £1 over that amount your ESA will reduce by 50p week.

Your ESA could still be New style because many areas had moved over to Universal Credit before Dec 2018.

Do you have a recent ESA letter with a full breakdown of what's included with your ESA? If so it would help if you could tell me exactly what it says in that breakdown.

Or if you could tell me how much your ESA is per week and which group you're in as this may give me some idea.

If you can't answer those questions then you'll need to get some expert advice from an agency near you.

https://advicelocal.uk/welfare-benefits

pension

Hi Poppy

The weekly ESA rate was £44.46 from13/7/17 until Feb 2024 when it stopped because I reached state pension age The letter says I was in the support work category for contributory ESA.
I had previously received SDP with working tax credits before claiming ESA when I was too ill to continue working. I do not have a letter with a full breakdown of the £44.46 ESA award. My pip is at the enhanced level.

poppy123456

There's no such group as support work category. It's either Support Group or work related activity group. If it was either New style or contributions based then it must have been the Support Group you were in because otherwise your payments would have stopped after 1 year.

If it was contributions based or New style then that amount suggests that your pension was more than £85/week. This would mean that your pension would wipe out entitlement to any disability premiums. Was your pension more than £85/week at that time?

It's extremely difficult to advise with such little information. You're much better off getting some expert advice from an agency near you.

https://advicelocal.uk/welfare-benefits

Going forward you would need to look at claiming Pension Credit, if you haven't already. If you live alone or treated as living alone then you'll be entitled to SDP which is paid in with Pension Credit, providing no one is claiming either carers allowance or carers element of Universal Credit for looking after you.