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Qualifying for contribution based ESA

dunnesy

Having just spoken to the NI office and reading out the official criteria from Scope web page. I feel I need to explain what they have told me.

Class 1 or 2 NI contributions protect the individual and allow individuals to claim for contribution based ESA. Class 1 and 2 is equal to the low earnings limit.

ESA contribution based precondition 1 is erroneous . The 2nd precondition is that for each of the previous 2 tax years to the tax year in which your claiming, you must have paid or been credited with class 1 or 2 NI for 50 weeks . You can pay retrospectively in certain instances for up to the previous 6 years

The 1st precondition is met by the 2nd precondition (above) as the second precondition is for 50 weeks each year. This 1st condition is strange and unnecessary.

Class 1 and 2 tax is equal to low earnings limit so the blaablaa about low earnings is completely unnecessary and confusing .

MOST IMPORTANTLY .
PAYING CLASS 2 NI AS YOU GO ALONG OR RETROSPECTIVELY DOES NOT MEAN YOU HAVE TO HAVE WORKED. (The preconditions quoted by entitledto website it says paying class 2 means you've had to have worked is simply wrong...this is not true) see below

You can pay voluntary contributions for class 2 retrospectively if you meet just 1 of the following criteria.

You work self employed
You work overseas
You rent out property whether you work or not
You have other income such as a company pension. Whether you work or not

I respectfully request that the administrators please check out my findings and advise if they feel any of my information is incorrect. If they find it is correct, then the Scope advice page detailing eligibility for claiming ESA contribution based allowance needs to be amended. I have already written to both CAB and Entitledto. I feel it is important that we dont just keep copy and pasting and sharing confusing and incorrect information because its written on a website.

Thank you for reading

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Comments

Chloe_Alumni

Thank you so much for updating us on this @dunnesy

dunnesy

Hi Chloe. I'm concerned because criteria information showing on all the respected sites including Scope seems to be wrong. This could result in people who are entitled to claim thinking they dont meet the criteria. For me personally its been a frustrating and distressing experience. As an organisation you have many more contacts and more power to speak to the BA and get clear and simple precondition information and amend your page. I am asking if you can take the time to do this?
Its a terrible thought that if even just 1 person didn't claim because they thought they couldn't ....any info on criteria needs to be correct and worded appropriately so the reader can understand .
Thanks

Sam_Alumni

I will pass this on @dunnesy and ask someone to look into it.

@BenefitsTrainingCo could you clarify please?

BenefitsTrainingCo

Hi @dunnesy

I don't know which part of the scope website you are referring to. But I have looked at the entitledto website which appears to me to be correct.

There is a distinction between paying national insurance contributions and being credited with contributions. In practice this means you must have worked in at least 26 weeks of the two years before the year in which you claim with earnings of at least the lower earnings level, whilst you must also have either paid or been credited with contributions in at least 50 weeks of both of the two years before the year in which you claim.

The way I approach this is to consider that someone is unlikely to qualify for contributory ESA if they have done no work at all in either of the two years before the year in which they claim. But if someone has done at least some work in either of those years they may well qualify.

I appreciate these rules are very technical and can cause confusion. I hope this helps.

David

poppy123456

I totally agree with benefitsTraining Co,

I see absolutely nothing incorrect about any of the websites stating the conditions for claiming a Contribution based benefit.

@dunnesy and based on your circumtances was your ESA CB claim successful? I'd be interested to know if it was or not.

dunnesy

From CAB
you’ve paid at least 26 weeks class 1 or class 2 National Insurance (NI) contributions in one of the last 2 complete tax years and have been paid or credited with NI contributions for at least 50 weeks in each of the last 2 complete tax years. The 2 tax years must be the ones that were completed before the benefit year in which your period of limited capability for work began. The benefit year runs from the first Sunday in January. The tax year runs from 6 April to 5 April. You can check your national insurance record online

dunnesy

From the NI website.

National Insurance contributions count towards the benefits and pensions in the table.

Benefit	Class 1: employees	Class 2: self-employed	Class 3: voluntary contributions
Basic State Pension	Yes	Yes	Yes
Additional State Pension	Yes	No	No
New State Pension	Yes	Yes	Yes
Contribution-based Jobseeker’s Allowance	Yes	No	No
Contribution-based Employment and Support Allowance	Yes	Yes	No
Maternity Allowance	Yes	Yes	No
Bereavement Support Payment	Yes	Yes	No

Class 4 contributions paid by self-employed people with a profit over £8,424 do not usually count towards state benefits.

dunnesy

Please can you provide evidence apart from entitledto website about working for 26 weeks. no one else has details of having to work 26 weeks . not CAB or even gov.org
The NI office whom, by the way, the benefits helpline told me to call have assured me that class 2 retrospective payments qualify to make a claim for contributory ESA as it is clearly set out in their chart. That's good enough for me .

dunnesy

Contributory ESA

You may be able to claim contributory ESA if:you’re not in a Universal Credit full service areayou’ve paid enough National Insurance contributions (National Insurance credits can count for part of this, if you get them)

dunnesy

BenefitsTrainingCo said:

Hi @dunnesy

I don't know which part of the scope website you are referring to. But I have looked at the entitledto website which appears to me to be correct.

There is a distinction between paying national insurance contributions and being credited with contributions. In practice this means you must have worked in at least 26 weeks of the two years before the year in which you claim with earnings of at least the lower earnings level, whilst you must also have either paid or been credited with contributions in at least 50 weeks of both of the two years before the year in which you claim.

The way I approach this is to consider that someone is unlikely to qualify for contributory ESA if they have done no work at all in either of the two years before the year in which they claim. But if someone has done at least some work in either of those years they may well qualify.

I appreciate these rules are very technical and can cause confusion. I hope this helps.

David

Thanks David but could you just glance over my other posts and I think you might revise your thinking.

dunnesy

By the way David you pay national insurance class 2 if your self employed, renting a home, working abroad or have other income such a works pension . you can pay class 2 for all these things, you don't just have to be self employed. Paying is paying no matter why or who pays and as you know class 2 can only be paid by an individual, mostly those self employed . The confusion has arisen because of the " this means you have to be working" section of entitledto page which is not born out by the NI rules or the government website or our conversation with DWP. If there is any other information that disputes this please advise. We have suffered more than 5 hours of Vivaldi to clarify this
We wish you well

poppy123456

Was your ESA claim successful?

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