Esa

poppy123456

Melin said:

Hi really need help as l am very confused as l did say in my previous post my husband has been denied new style esa because he hasn’t paid enough national insurance so we was told to claim universal credit which we have started a claim and esa did send a esa50 form before the decision so we thought we don’t need to fill the esa50 because we are not getting it anyway but yesterday my husband has received a letter saying he should fill the esa50 form to get esa and the letter was sent on the 11th of November and the last day was the 20 th of November will him not sending the esa50 form make any effect on our universal credit claim?

@Adrian_Scope can you please help here. I've quoted the question for you here because it's rather a long thread and would take a while to read through all of it.

My opinion here is i don't understand the need to fill out the ESA50 form when the claim was refused because of lack of NI contributions. UC is now being claimed.

Melin

Thankyou for your reply’s we have told them exactly the same thing and they said when universal credit will start paying him they will close the claim anyway but l just don’t understand why keeping a claim open if they are not even going to pay him  l am stuck now and don’t know what to do shall we fill the esa50 form or not or just wait until they will eventually close the claim

Boyden1964

It could be worth filling out the ESA50 form because the credits will count towards your NI contributions and over time you should start getting some money when you have enough credits on universal credit you only get credits towards your pension. You should only have one assessment as both UC and ESA are the same but on the other hand it does not make difference either way the money works out the same as I get both universal credit and ESA that's because ESA is taken pound for pound from your universal credit. Hope this has helped in making your decision.

poppy123456

Boyden1964 said:

It could be worth filling out the ESA50 form because the credits will count towards your NI contributions and over time you should start getting some money when you have enough credits

That's not correct. As the person hasn't worked enough and paid the correct amount of NI contributions then an ESA claim will never be in payment. NI credits alone is not enough for payments to be made.

poppy123456

Melin said:

Thankyou for your reply’s we have told them exactly the same thing and they said when universal credit will start paying him they will close the claim anyway but l just don’t understand why keeping a claim open if they are not even going to pay him  l am stuck now and don’t know what to do shall we fill the esa50 form or not or just wait until they will eventually close the claim

The claim should already be closed unless you asked for it to be a credits only claim. My advice is to ring DWP to ask.

Adrian_Scope

Thanks for the tag @poppy123456. 

@Melin, the first thing I would suggest is to double check what they've said regarding the SSP and NI credits. He should be eligible for class 1 for that period and it may be worth him applying for that. See below:

You’re on Statutory Sick Pay and you do not earn enough to make a qualifying year

Apply for Class 1 credits. Write to: PT Operations North East England, HM Revenue and Customs, BX9 1AN, United Kingdom. Include your National Insurance number and say when the credits are for and why you’re eligible

With regards to your UC claim and the ESA50 form you already have, if his ESA is now credits-only, your husband filling in and sending the ESA50 could still be worthwhile. The decision from his credits-only ESA claim would still transfer over to UC and would mean you're not serving a longer wait period than necessary as it would begin from the date of his NS ESA claim, not your joint UC one which I believe was much later?

poppy123456

@Adrian_Scope thank you very much for that!

Melin

Thankyou very much for the comments l have spoken to dwp (esa) and just been told they are closing the claim as we have started a claim with universal credit 

poppy123456

Thanks for letting us know. I thought that maybe what might happen but am surprised they didn't already do that, if your partner didn't ask for a credits only claim.

Melin

Hi sorry if  l am keep asking questions but l really don’t know about the system on citizen advise website l have read that l need to book an appointment with my work coach but on my web jeornal it says they will contact me  if they need anything do l need to call universal credit helpline and ask or should l just wait until they will contact me.

poppy123456

Face to face appointments are mostly suspended, especially if you live in England because we are still in a lockdown. Your journal is correct, if they need anything they will contact you.

Melin

Thankyou so much poppy