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Joint claim info.

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Chutneyqueen101
Chutneyqueen101 Community member Posts: 1 Listener
edited October 2019 in Employment and Support Allowance (ESA)
Hi all my husband and I both receive ESA in a joint claim, he gets DLA and I get PIP, when he changes to state pension what happens to my part of the ESA  claim as I am 5 years behind in age?
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  • poppy123456
    poppy123456 Community member Posts: 54,038 Disability Gamechanger
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    Hi,

    Who's the main claimant of the ESA claim? Yourself or your partner?
    I would appreciate it if members wouldn't tag me please. I have all notifcations turned off and wouldn't want a member thinking i'm being rude by not replying.
    If i see a question that i know the answer to i will try my best to help.
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  • Chloe_Scope
    Chloe_Scope Posts: 10,586 Disability Gamechanger
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    Hi @Chutneyqueen101 and a warm welcome to the community! Please can you give us some more information? This would allow us to advise you better. :)
    Scope

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  • BenefitsTrainingCo
    BenefitsTrainingCo Community member Posts: 2,621 Pioneering
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    Chutneyqueen101Chutneyqueen101,

    The answer is complicated! If you get PIP daily living and your husband gets DLA middle or high rate care component, no other adults live with you, and no one is getting carer's allowance for you (or, at least, people are not getting carer's allowance for both of you), then you should be getting what is called an SDP (severe disability premium) amount in your income-related ESA.

    If that's the case, the good news is that your current benefits will just continue. There will be a change in the amount you receive  - this will depend on the rate of his state pension, and something called a pensioner premium which affects the calculation too. 

    If for some reason you don't get any SDP in your income-related ESA (perhaps because another adult lives with you, or there are people claiming carer's allowance for both of you), then if you are the main claimant for income-related ESA, again your current benefits can continue.

    If however your partner is the main claimant for income-related ESA, he won't be able to continue claiming this if you are not getting an SDP. It will stop. Unfortunately, that would mean you'd be looking at claiming universal credit (UC) as a couple.

    However, I'm hopeful that given that you both get DLA/PIP, you do meet the conditions for the SDP and so you won't have to change anything. If you do get the SDP and it's your husband who is the main claimant for income-related ESA, you might want to think about changing this so that you make the income-related ESA claim instead. That's so you are an SDP claimant and will be protected if you were to end up on your own whilst these rules still apply (the SDP protection from UC is only due to last until 27 January 2021).

    Will
    The Benefits Training Co:

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