Need help/advice

confused123
confused123 Community member Posts: 1 Listener
in Employment and Support Allowance (ESA)

Hi,

Im asking on behalf of my wife as shes extremely overwhelmed and im trying to get her some information.

She is in her late 30s and has just been medically retired on a pension of £500 per month, She also recieves PIP. She has numerous chronic pain and neurological problems but the IRMP couldn't say she would never be able to work again as "With advancements in AI she may find a career in the future that will help" This meant she got the tier 2 LGPS pension not tier 1 ( i think its more her age and they fluffed the report)

My question though is around ESA, She doesn't qualify for universal credits due to my income but having read everything were fairly confident she could get the support part of ESA which if ive understood it correctly it could replace her lost salary.

im confused in a few areas though

  1. it says she gets more for living with a partner, is this true or is this only if she qualifies for UC?
  2. It says she can claim ESA whilst receiving a pension as long as she does the calculation of the weekly amount minus £85 then halve the remainder and take that off the ESA amount so i work out ( roughly) that

Her £6k pension is £115 per week, if i take the £85 of that its £30 and if i halve that its £15 so i would take the £15 of the weekly ESA amount of

  • £189.85 each week if you live with a partner
  • £138.20 each week if you don't live with a partner

and she would get either £123 or £174? per week.

Am i missing anything really obvious here?

Thank you

Comments

  • Kimmy87
    Kimmy87 Community member Posts: 1,348 Trailblazing
    edited December 2

    You have quoted the amounts for IR ESA.

    No new claims for Income Related ESA are possible. This has been replaced by UC.

    New Style ESA however is not means tested, but eligibility after pension deductions is not my area of expertise:

    https://www.gov.uk/guidance/new-style-employment-and-support-allowance

    You can also try a benefits calculator:

    https://www.gov.uk/benefits-calculators

  • poppy123456
    poppy123456 Community member Posts: 61,782 Championing

    To be entitled to New style ESA she must have the correct NI contributions from tax years 2021/22 and 2022/23.

    For the first 13 weeks if entitled to payments she would receive £90.50/week, minus the deduction for her pension.

    If placed into the Support Group her payments would increase to £138.20/week, minus the deduction for her pension.

    Your calculations for her pension deduction is correct, it’s 50p/week for every £1 over £85/week.

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