ESA Contribution and Income related

alun31

Hi
I applied for esa in 2011 after having to finish work due to my mental health and was awarded contribution based esa and support group. I have remained on this ever since but only recently became aware that there is also income related esa which would entitle me to an extra £15.90 edp plus other benefits as i am in the support group and always have been.
I have never had savings over £3000 or any other form of income or capital and i believe this information would have been provided to the dwp on my original application. So should i therefor have been assessed for income related esa at the time and if so be eligible to claim a back payment?

The more information i try and find about this the more confused i get. Surely when you apply for esa and fill out the forms with all your information regarding savings and income etc its up to the dwp to give you the correct benefit or so i thought

Pippa_Alumni

Hi @alun31, and welcome to the community!

Our benefits advisors receive a large volume of enquiries, however somebody will be in touch as soon as possible. In the meantime, it might be worth using an online benefits calculator to get a better idea of whether you may be entitled to income related ESA, as well as any other additional benefits. You might also like to have a look at Scope's information on ESA. Hopefully, somebody will be in touch soon to advise you on what your next step should be. Best of luck! 

steve51

Hi @alun31

Good afternoon & welcome aboard.

I’m so sorry to hear that you are unsure about your benefits. 

1. We we have got lots of info on “ESA”

2. We have also got “Benefit Advisors” here on our website.

I’m very happy in helping / supporting you in which ever route you want to go down????

Many thanks.

alun31

Hi Pippa and Steve, many thanks for the kind welcome and replies. I have checked on a few benefits calculators and they all say i am entitled to the income related. I will be most appreciative of any advice from one of the benefits advisors when they have time and i will take it from there

many thanks
Alun

CockneyRebel

Hello alun and welcome

Normally a claim for ESA (IR) requires filling in a financial check form ESA3. It would be worth while getting a full benefit check and help with your claim from CAB if possible

CR

BenefitsTrainingCo

Hi @Alun31

The ESA1 form (which is the claim form you completed at the very start of your claim) asks for the information for both income based and contributions based benefit. The form asks you to indicate which type of benefit you are claiming and then only directs you to complete the parts relevant - therefore if you stated you wanted to make a contributions-based claim, the form would not ask you for details of savings etc.

So your case for backdate will come down to what you asked for on that original form - which I'm guessing (since it was 2011) you can't remember.

Tactically therefore, I'd be doing two things - firstly, get an ESA3 form as CR suggests and get the additional premium added on at least as of now, and secondly, sending a letter to ESA along the lines of "I believe that I claimed income based ESA in 2011 and that due to an error this has never been processed. Please review this decision and add the income related ESA from the start..." and just see what they come back with - they should still have a copy of the form, so I imagine they'll be quick enough to tell you if no claim for income related was made.

Let us know how you get on!

Kind regards,

Mary

alun31

Thank you for your help, i will ring them now to send me an ESA3 form and also ask them to send me a copy of the original ESA1 form i sent to see exactly what i put down on it. I will keep you informed of how things go

Alun

alun31

Hi
I phoned dwp yesterday and asked about having the enhanced disability benefit added to my esa as an income related amount and was told you can not have any income related amounts or top ups applied if you are on contribution based esa only change to fully income related. I believe this is wrong as it clearly states on the gov.uk site that income related is either paid on its own or on top of contribution based if on low income?

I then asked why i was on contribution esa in the first place as i would have always qualified for the ir esa to which she said it was on their system as a contribution only claim and this was always paid before ir anyway. I then asked for them to send me a copy of the original esa 1 form i sent as i was sure i applied for both ir and cb esa, to which she replied i dont think we will have the forms but i can have a look.

Something i came across while searching for information was a caselaw which the judge ruled that esa was a single benefit and not two seperate benefits so the dwp should assess whether a claim is qualifying for ir esa as well as cb even if the claimant only asks for one or the other
http://www.osscsc.gov.uk/Aspx/view.aspx?id=4349

Para 12. ... it is not necessary to make separate claims for each of the contributory allowance and the income-related allowance. ... there is nothing in the legislation requiring separate claims for the contributory allowance and the income-related allowance.

Para 13. As a matter of practice, a claimant is given an opportunity on a standard claim form to indicate whether he or she wishes to “claim” both allowances or only one of them.

That has obvious administrative advantages for the Department and it also has advantages for claimants – provided that they do not wrongly believe that they are not entitled to one or other of the allowances – because it avoids delay while contribution records are investigated or, probably more importantly, makes it unnecessary for a claimant to provide details of his or her financial position.

Nonetheless, despite the language usually used, an indication that one or other of the allowances is not “claimed” amounts to a waiver of the need for the Secretary of State to consider entitlement to that element of employment and support allowance, rather than amounting to a true failure to claim it.

The legislation does not actually contemplate there being a claim for only one element of the allowance.

Para 25. ... the amount of employment and support allowance may include an amount attributable to the income-related allowance without a specific claim for that allowance having been made"

So where i go from here i dont know

BenefitsTrainingCo

Hi @Alun31

Firstly, I'm loving that judgement!! I'll admit I was not aware of it - apologies - but seems it may certainly be of use to you.

Secondly, as regards adding the premium now, I think the person you have spoken to at the DWP has failed to understand what you are on about. Let's not forget that they are callcentre staff and not decision makers and therefore have limited knowledge of the benefits system. I hope that they sent you an ESA3 anyway and that you have completed it? If not you need to call them back and ask for one - no need to go into too much detail as to what it is for.

Thirdly, as regards the original claim form, if it doesn't seem to be forthcoming, I would recommend putting something in writing to the DWP. Entitle it something to the effect of 'Any Time Review Request' and mention that you believe that the income based element has been omitted from your claim due to an error on the part of the DWP - work on the assumption that you believe you did tick 'both', but perhaps add a  bit about this case at the end, that even if it were the case that 'both' had not been ticked, it would still have been an error on their part not to consider your entitlement to the income-related part.

Don't be put off!

Let us know how you're getting on.

Kind regards,

Mary

alun31

Thanks for your reply Mary, i am still waiting for the ESA3 to arrive but no surprise there!!
I will keep you informed of any developments along the way which may in turn help others in a similar position

Alun

wilko

When i applied for ESA I had my PIP accessment, and on phoning about transport for my ESA accessment was informed I have been put in the surport group without accessment. The award was for both income and contributed ESA.

Al_leister

Alun31, I'm really keen to know what the outcome was; I'm in the same situation and wondering if I can claim IB ESA top up?
Thank you 

poppy123456

Al_leister said:

Alun31, I'm really keen to know what the outcome was; I'm in the same situation and wondering if I can claim IB ESA top up?
Thank you 

Hi,

That will depend what ESA you're currently claiming, whether it's the old Contributions based or the New style ESA.

If it's the old Contributions based then claiming the IR top up is possible but it will totally depend on your circumstances.

If it's new style ESA then there's no IR top up paid on this.

Al_leister

Thanks, Poppy. 
It is old style CB esa, both my wife and me. 

poppy123456

Al_leister said:

Thanks, Poppy. 
It is old style CB esa, both my wife and me. 

Are you claiming as a couple? Is your wife claiming any other benefits or working? Sorry but it's impossible to help without all the information. If you don't want to disclose any information then you will need to speak to an advice agency near you for a full benefits check.

Al_leister

Hi Poppy 
I claimed esa about a year after my wife. 
Both on CB support group. 
Both receive pip, lr daily living. 
No savings, not receiving any other benefits/income. 
Applied for Housing benefit, had to go through UC to claim. This was six months ago. Each month UC statement shows Zero. Advised not eligible for any other benefits due to total of our esa, £483.82 each. 

Adrian_Scope

Hi @Al_leister and welcome to the community.

Is your housing on your UC claim? Unless your housing is less than £132ish I feel like you should still be getting some Universal Credit.

£498.89 Standard Couple rate age 25+
£336.20 LCWRA
= £835.09

Then deduct £967.46 for CB ESA.

Leaves -132.37 but if your rent is more than £132.37 a month then you should still be getting some UC. 

Al_leister

Thank you, Adrian 
We initially claimed ESA. 
Later we applied for Housing benefit and were advised we must submit a UC claim to receive HB so we did.
Our UC statement shows £0 each month with the following information,
£498.89 couple rate
£289.64 rent (- rates) 
Total £788.53
There is no mention of UCWRA. 
Thank you 

Al_leister

We both are in support group. 

poppy123456

Al_leister said:

Thank you, Adrian 
We initially claimed ESA. 
Later we applied for Housing benefit and were advised we must submit a UC claim to receive HB so we did.
Our UC statement shows £0 each month with the following information,
£498.89 couple rate
£289.64 rent (- rates) 
Total £788.53
There is no mention of UCWRA. 
Thank you 

As you're in the Support Group then they should be adding the LCWRA element of £336 per month, this is where the error is. You need to either put a note on your journal asking for that element to be added or ring UC to speak to your case manager. They will owe you some backdated money from the date your claim started.

You should also check what local housing allowance you should be claiming for your area to make sure that's correct. If it's just yourself and your partner you'll be entitled to the 1 bedroom rate. Check here. https://lha-direct.voa.gov.uk/

Al_leister

Thank you for this information and for your time. 
I will add this information to the journal. 
Best regards