Hi i wonder if you could help me please?
Im 43 and most my life i have been on benefits due to not being able to work because of agoraphobia.
Up until Jan 2017 i was getting ESA income related but sadly my dad died and i inherited money so could no longer claim ESA income related so stopped the benefit.
My husband and i are living on the money i inherited which is going down fast as i can no longer get housing benefit or council tax benefit either, my husband cant work as he is my carer (doesn't claim as carer)
Ive been told by a friend that i could possibly get ESA contribution based as its not means tested but they think i will need to of paid two years NI but not sure what type or for how long and the second year of that either be employed or self employed for a certain amount of time but didnt no how long.
Could you please tell me is it at all possible for me to try to claim ESA contribution based now or in the future and what i would need to do? How soon could i claim it please as ive read this but still dont really understand it.
First contribution condition - in one of the last two complete tax years, you must have paid Class 1 or 2 contributions on relevant earnings at the lower earnings limit for at least 26 weeks. This means you must have worked for at least 26 weeks of the last two complete tax years; andSecond contribution condition - in both of the last two complete tax years, you must have paid or been credited with, Class 1 or 2 contributions to the value of 50 times the lower earnings limit.If i paid NI class 2 for 2017-2018 myself and then went self employed now and was paying class 2 NI from April 2018 to April 2019 and my business didnt work because of my mental health would i then be able to claim contrubution based ESA in April 2019? or even sooner? Im worried that things could go wrong and i would feel better knowing there is a safety net.
If ive got that all wrong could you please tell me what i would need to do and pay to be able to claim now or in the future?
Also my husband and i have been living together for 14 years while i was claiming income support and then ESA income related, i put my husbands name on all the forms and was getting couple rate. A couple of days ago we checked are pensions and the DWP have not paid any NI for my husband in all those years. I was under the impression that as he was my husband and i was claiming as him being my dependant that they are meant to pay his stamp but they have paid nothing, is this wrong and what do i do about it please? My brother gets contrubution based ESA and they have paid his girlfriends NI even though there isn't a couple rate of contrubution based ESA.
Thank you
