Confused!!! Please help ESA and working

chris888

It's a long one so I apologise in advance.
I'm looking at going back to work and at the moment I recieve child tax credit and child benefit, I know I can apply for working tax credits as I already receive tax credits, the bit that confuses me is my partners esa claim.
He recieves contribution based esa and is in the support group. He was was originally moved to esa from incapacity benefit and was placed in the work related group which was paid as contribution bases esa for 365, we were then told to apply for income based esa as a couple as I wasn't working and heavily pregnant, he was then reassessed again and moved into the support group and back to contribution based esa.
Now this is where I need advice,
The letters my partner recieves states living expenses for you and your partner etc and stated that income based is x amount minus 0 but as your entitled to contribution based esa we will pay x amount, so to me that shows I'm am on his esa claim.
Will me returning to work trigger a need for  universal credit due to me needing to come off my partners esa claim...I'm soo confused...please help 

calcotti

chris888 said:

Will me returning to work trigger a need for  universal credit due to me needing to come off my partners esa claim...I'm soo confused...please help 

No. You wouldn't come off the ESA claim just by working. If you work for 24 hours or more your partner would lose entitlement to any income based ESA. Their contribution based ESA does not change.

chris888

Thanks for replying, 
I'm pretty sure my partners esa is contribution based as it states on the letter and each year I have to send hmrc the taxable benefits income we've received each year.
So if I start working it won't trigger u/c will they just recalculate his esa as a single person and 

poppy123456

It sounds like at least part of it is Contributions based, which won't be affected by you working. (£114.10 per week) Your partner will need to report the changes if you start working. As advised, this won't prompt a move to UC.

calcotti

chris888 said:

So if I start working it won't trigger u/c will they just recalculate his esa as a single person and 

The contribution based ESA is always calculated on an individual basis. Any income based ESA is always calculated as a couple.

chris888

Thanks so much for your reply, I now understand a little bit, it's all so confusing at times, 
I was just worried incase my partner informing dwp that I was going back to work and then needing to recalculate his esa would trigger a u/c claim