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So confused!

RainbowEyes

I've posted before but I'm so confused! I'm moving in with my partner and at the moment I claim ESA and PIP. I did a benefits calculator and it said I would be better off claiming Income support and my partner claiming carer's allowance. Can I switch from ESA to income support? The benefit calculator said I could get £ 218.05 a week if I claimed income support, but if my partner claimed and I stopped getting ESA she'd only get £131.50
My partner is a part-time student (just one day a week) and will be my full-time carer so won't be working. So my question I suppose is:

Can I switch from ESA to income support?

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CockneyRebel

Hi RainbowEyes

You should get trained advice from CAB or similar

You would need to fill in an ESA3 financial check form to see if you qualified for an IR top up

CR

RainbowEyes

We're hoping to move in June so we'll be visiting the CAB in May. It's really confusing. I've tried using the benefits calculator to work out different scenarios. Can a benefits advisor tell me if it would be possible to do the following:

Me stop claiming ESA, but keep my PIP
My partner to claim income support and carers allowance
My partner to work under 16 hours per week

Would we be better off in that situation, rather than:

Me keep claiming ESA/PIP
My partner claiming carers allowance
my partner working less than 16 hours per week

poppy123456

RainbowEyes said:

We're hoping to move in June so we'll be visiting the CAB in May. It's really confusing. I've tried using the benefits calculator to work out different scenarios. Can a benefits advisor tell me if it would be possible to do the following:

Me stop claiming ESA, but keep my PIP
My partner to claim income support and carers allowance
My partner to work under 16 hours per week

Would we be better off in that situation, rather than:

Me keep claiming ESA/PIP
My partner claiming carers allowance
my partner working less than 16 hours per week

Working and claiming Income Support would mean anything over £20 per week from wages and the Income Support is affected £1 for £1. The same goes for ESA if the partner of the person who isn't the main claimant, if the partner is claiming Income related ESA. Contribution based ESA won't be affected by partners earnings.

Another thing to be careful of here is if you move to a full Universal credit area and you need to claim Housing benefit then you'll have to claim UC and not HB and ESA.

CockneyRebel

PIP is unaffected

Are you moving to a full service area or live service area ?
Is your ESA contribution based ?
Has your partner paid sufficient NI to claim ESA ?
Will you be claiming HB, CT etc ?

CR

BenefitsTrainingCo

Hi @RainbowEyes

Let me see if I can offer some clarification with figures...

Assuming your ESA is income based, and you are in the Support Group, if you just stayed on ESA, added your partner to your claim and she claimed Carer's Allowance, your 'applicable amount' (i.e. the amount the DWP say you need to live on, before any deductions for income) is 209.20/week. (this is 114.85 basic rate for couples, plus SG premium of 36.55, Enhanced Dis premium of 22.85 and a Carer's Premium of 34.95) the Carers Allowance of 62.70 and if we say 10 hours work paid at 78.30 (with a £20 disregard), this leaves 88.20 in ESA, as well as the Carers, PIP and wages.

For Income Support, the 'applicable amount' is often lower. You would get the 114.85 basic rate for couples, obviously no SG premium. You would get a Dis premium of 46.40, but would only get an EDP if you get the enhanced DL of PIP. So if you only qualify for the Carers Premium and Dis Premium, then the applicable amount would be 196.20, which would give a balance of 75.20/week, over £10 less...

On the other hand, if you get the enhanced DL of PIP, and would therefore qualify for the EDP of 22.85, then the total IS would be around £10 more than ESA...

The IS would be in joint btw, but with your partner as the main claimant, as the qualifying factor is the Carer's.

Obviously I've invented certain aspects of your circumstances here for illustrative purposes, so please approach the above calculations with care. And if you're in UC full service it's a totally different ballgame.

Try the entitled to website https://www.entitledto.co.uk/

Hope this helps,

Kind regards,

Mary

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