leevel 4 and 5 full time courses

Lynfreedom
Lynfreedom Online Community Member Posts: 1 Listener
edited April 2018 in Employment and Support Allowance (ESA)
Hi im the support group of  ESA AS I CANT WORK due to 2 chronic health conditions. Can I  still  be paid esa, whilst I'm studying,  as a disabled person if not,  how am  I supposed to move forward in my chosen career path? 

Comments

  • poppy123456
    poppy123456 Online Community Member Posts: 64,463 Championing
    If it's Contribution based ESA you're claiming then yes you can continue being paid this part of the ESA. Any premiums added on top will stop.

    If it's Income Related ESA then you can only continue to claim the ESA if you claim DLA or PIP.

    Any student loans you receive will affect any Income Related ESA also.

    https://www.turn2us.org.uk/Benefit-guides/Full-time-students-and-benefits/Can-full-time-students-claim-disability-benefits

    Does ESA know you're a student? If they don't then you do need to ring them to report any changes, otherwise you'll end up with an overpayment that will have to be paid back.

  • [Deleted User]
    [Deleted User] Posts: 273 Empowering
    Hi Lynfreedom

    Welcome to the Online Community.

    I agree with poppy123456 and would like to clarify just a couple of points. 

    Do be careful about any gap in benefit payments. If there is a gap and you live in a full service Universal Credit (UC) area, you are likely to be moved onto this benefit.

    https://ucpostcode.entitledto.co.uk/ucdate

    For UC, students aren't automatically deemed to  have a limited capability for work, and if they don't pass the work capability assessment, then their entitlement to income related benefits would stop. 

    If you are getting ESA, your entitlement to benefits whilst studying will be reduced by any student finance to which you are entitled (rather than any that you receive). 

    The way in which the student finance is calculated is that for ESA, a small amount, for books, equipment, and  travel is ignored, plus any disabled student allowance, and the rest is divided by the number of term time weeks in the academic year, often about 42. This usually means that the student gets significantly more ESA over the summer holiday. For UC, the calculation starts off the same, then the basic loan is divided by 12, to get the monthly amount to take into account. (I have't seen this is practice yet, but it must mean that entitlement over the summer is only the same as during the academic year). 

    Best wishes

    Gill_Scope




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