Income support to ESA

Ralph

Just recieved a letter saying that after 29th Dec my wife will be no longer entitled to income support as we have to be looking for work to claim it. Or claim jobseekers. The letter doesn’t make sense really. We have been receiving income support for a number of years.
I take it we now have to claim ESA. 
My wife receives PiP standard rate care and high rate mobility and i receive high rate mobility pip (lost my high care DLA on change over from DLA) and she is incapable of work. I care for may wife and recieve carers allowance for her.
So should she now claim ESA?

poppy123456

HI,

I have no idea why you've received that letter because the reasons you're claiming the income support is because you claim Carers Allowance and this entitles you to claim Income Support. You don't look for work while claiming Income support.

If your area is a full Universal credit area then you won't be able to claim ESA, it will have to be universal credit.

Are you sure you're reading the letter correctly? This makes no sense to me at all.

Ralph

Here’s the first paragraph.

I am writing to tell you your income support will change. 
This means from 29 December you are not entitled. This is because you have to be available for work. You should claim Jobseeker’s Allowance. 
We have sent you an information sheet explaining other help you may be entitled to, even if you are not getting income support. 

If if your circumstances change you may become entitled to income support. A new claim form will be required before a decision can be made on your benefit entitlement. 

Then other her stuff about how you will get your money. 

poppy123456

I have just seen a last post of yours on this forum and i see that your PIP award is a new award am i correct? I also see that you don't have a daily living award of PIP but you used to claim high rate care DLA yes?

Are you 100% sure that you claim carers allowance for looking after your wife? what i think is that your wife is the one that's claiming carers allowance for looking after you and because you don't have a daily living PIP award then she's not entitled to claim carers allowance for looking after you. Have either of you received a letter from carers allowance saying that it's now stopping? This is the only reason i can think of that would make your Income Support stop.

If you were claiming carers allowance for your wife then your Income support wouldn't stop because she has a daily living award of PIP.

You need to ring Income Support first thing Monday morning and ask them why your Income Support is stopping, they open at 8.am. They will be able to tell exactly what's going on.

Ralph

I think you’ve nailed it. She was getting carers allowance for me then when I lost high care she lost it of course. Now I have claimed carers for her which doesn’t start for a couple of weeks. I have been told I’m entitled to it though. 

Ralph

Yes my DLA change over to pip just happened.  She was getting CA for me, sorry didn’t include those answers. 

poppy123456

Yes i thought this maybe it. The only problem i see that could happen with this is that if there's a break in the Income Support and your area is a full universal credit area then you'll have to claim UC, not Income Support. I'm not sure why the letter states the Income Support end on 29th December though because there's a 4 week run on and this will take you past that.

May still be worth ringing them on Monday.

Ralph

Oh yes we will ring up. Thanks for all the help. They always seem to send these letters out on a Saturday leaving you the whole weekend before you can sort it out. I’ll report back so that if someone else runs into this they may have a better idea what’s going on. I did notice posters up saying UC is being introduced in my area. 

poppy123456

Letters aren't just received on Saturdays lol but i know what you mean, it does feel that way sometimes and it does make the weekend more stressful than it should normally be.

Ralph

Btw I think I’ve worked it out. 
We were getting income support because my wife was caring for me just like you said. So she couldn’t work. Now that’s finished, thank you pip I will have to claim income support as I’m caring for her. Anyway good night and thanks again.