Finished on medical grounds

Great news about the PIP too.

The benefit that I feel may be the best fit for you is New-Style ESA with your husbands earnings and you may have savings too but please do let us know how you get on with the link above.

You then apply using the link above, it will ask questions about your health conditions and personal information (NI number, bank details, GP surgery details and so on). If found to be eligible, DWP will phone you a few days later to schedule an initial appointment with a Work Coach, the reason this will need to happen is so you can agree to your ‘claimant commitment’ (a document which sets out what you must do to receive ESA).

After 29 days you will receive a form in the post to fill in and return with relevant medical evidence, you will have one month to do this. After a short wait, you may have to attend a Work Capability Assessment. This is where you will be speaking to a Healthcare Professional about your conditions and after this, a report will be made and returned to DWP with a recommendation on your capability to work. Keep getting fit notes from your GP in the meantime, sending these to ESA and ensure there’s no gaps in the dates. A Decision Maker at DWP will make the final decision.

After you have been assessed there are 3 groups you can be placed in, fit for work, LCW which means DWP accept that you have no ability to work right now but will need to attend appointments every couple of months to ‘prepare for work’, the last group you can be placed in is the Support Group, this group means you won’t have to attend any meetings and will be left alone. LCW has a 12 month maximum limit, the Support Group is indefinite (or until you are re-assessed again a few years later). You won’t need any more fit notes once you have had a decision letter.

For the first few weeks (or if you get awarded LCW), your payment will be £84.80 a week. If you are assessed and placed in the Support Group, your payment will be £129.50 a week which will be backdated to the 13th week. ESA is paid fortnightly and isn’t means-tested by your husbands earnings, savings and any of his pensions. You will also receive Class 1 NI contributions, ESA is a taxable benefit (although this shouldn’t make much of a difference to you).

PIP will always continue separately and has no bearing on ESA.