What ESA is my mum on? & how could this change because of PIP

CatsMeow

She was initially on incapacity benefit, before the introduction on ESA. She remains in the Support Group.

From what I can understand she is in, both? Which is a bit odd from everything I read and the fact she has never really worked her whole life.

The reason I'm curious is she received high rate PIP last week. She lives with my dad who gets carers allowance for my cousin (but we might swap that now), so i'm wondering what premiums she could get for ESA?

janer1967

Hi there 

There are no extra premiums unless your dad gets pip as well 

If si she may be entitled to sdp but to get that she has live alone or with someone who also gets pip and that nobody claims carers allowance for her 

CatsMeow

Is enhanced disability premium not a thing?

MarkM88

All eligibility is listed here - 
https://www.gov.uk/disability-premiums/eligibility

calcotti

CatsMeow said:

She remains in the Support Group. From what I can understand she is in, both? 

Not sure what you mean by ‘in both’, the Support Group is part of ESA.

The £114.10 is a normal single person contribution based ESA amount. Although she has never worked she is entitled to contribution based ESA because she was previously on IB.

The £176.55 payable is due to an extra £62.45 which is transitional protection added at the time she transferred from IB to ESA to ensure she did not experience a drop in benefit. 

If her ESA was calculated as an income based award it would be made up of a couple allowance £117.40, the Support Component £39.40, the Enhanced Disability Premium £24.60 and a Carer Premium £37.70 from which dad’s Carer Allowance of £67.60 would be deducted. This gives a total which is less than she is actually getting, hence no income based ESA is payable.

The award of PIP will make no difference to her ESA.

CatsMeow

calcotti said:

CatsMeow said:

She remains in the Support Group. From what I can understand she is in, both? 

Not sure what you mean by ‘in both’, the Support Group is part of ESA.

The £114.10 is a normal single person contribution based ESA amount. Although she has never worked she is entitled to contribution based ESA because she was previously on IB.

The £176.55 payable is due to an extra £62.45 which is transitional protection added at the time she transferred from IB to ESA to ensure she did not experience a drop in benefit. 

If her ESA was calculated as an income based award it would be made up of a couple allowance £117.40, the Support Component £39.40, the Enhanced Disability Premium £24.60 and a Carer Premium £37.70 from which dad’s Carer Allowance of £67.60 would be deducted. This gives a total which is less than she is actually getting, hence no income based ESA is payable.

The award of PIP will make no difference to her ESA.

I'm still a little bit confused but thank you.

I've always associated contribution based with working. I'm still not sure if she's on income based or contribution based? Is she only on contribution based because she was on incapacity benefit then?

I know she gets housing benefit etc which is means tested.

Surely the rules for income based must apply to her, for example the 6k savings rule etc.

calcotti

CatsMeow said: I've always associated contribution based with working. I'm still not sure if she's on income based or contribution based? Is she only on contribution based because she was on incapacity benefit then?

Yes people who transferred from IB to ESA were treated as meeting the NI conditions for contribution based ESA.

Because of the transitional protection her ESA appears to be entirely contribution based so the means testing rules do not apply to her ESA.