ESA contributions vs income based

[Bipolar bear]

Hi can anyone help with this please, I have been placed in the ESA WRAG without a medical but it says contribution based and I have to apply for income related ESA if eligible. My wife rang them today and a very nasty guy at the other end said you cannot get the two together at all and it would be like being paid wages and then asking for them again a few days later - yes I got his snotty way of mentioning wages when talking to a scrounger like me - and dismissed her out of hand without asking for any details yet even the DWP website says you can get top up income based ESA if eligible.

The letter from the council regarding HB and CTB say we are 50 a week short of the amount the law says we need to live on yet we cant find out what that means, it seems like the system is designed to confuse and obfuscate.

Please if you can plaese help.

[Nystagmite]

The man you spoke to is wrong. You can get income based and contributions based if, including other income, you have less money coming in than the law says you need to live on. For example, contributions based doesn't include the severe or enhanced disability premiums. So, if you meet the criteria for that, you can apply for that.

 

You should be able to get a benefits check done - I think your council can help with this.

[bio]

Google 'Applicable Amounts'

[ErikaPNP]

Your wife has been given incorrect information, as Nystagmite pointed out. You are absolutely correct that a 'top up' of income related ESA can be paid if you have less than the 'applicable amount' - the amount that the law says you need to live on.

 

The amount that the law says you need to live on (the 'applicable amount') varies depending on your circumstances. A single person's applicable amount will be different to that of a couple. A non disabled person's will be different to a severly disabled person's.

 

The amounts change every April as benefits are uprated.

 

As the council have said you are receiving less than your applicable amount during a housing benefit calculation, it is probable that an income related top up of ESA could be paid.

 

Because I do not know your income/capital information, or your ages I can't tell you what you should be getting. What I can say is that if your capital is under £6000 and you have no income other than your ESA, the amount of ESA you should be getting (and to which it can be topped up), bearing in mind that you are in the wrag would be £132.70. This does not take into account any additional disability premiums and assumes that both you and your wife are over 18. If you are entitled to premiums, it will be higher. If you have other income or capital above £6000, it would be lower.

 

If you are only getting £94.25 then you are only receiving contributory based ESA (WRAG) for yourself.

 

Sorry that I cannot be more specific but without knowing more, I cannot guess what you are eligible for.

 

In the stickies, (the yellow coloured threads) at the top of the benefit forum, there is a thread called "Current Benefit Rates" - these are all the benefit rates from April 2011 up until April 2012. After April 2012 the thread will change to the new rates.

 

You can view it against the information here to figure out what you should be getting.

 

If you are not getting what you should be, contact ESA again. You will have to do it because you are the claimant - your wife can speak for you if you give your consent to the person on the telephone. Explain that you want to claim income related ESA. If you get the same response as before, insist on speaking to a manager. If the manager gives you the same response tell them that you would like a call back from the ESA office that deals with your claim - insist upon it. When you phone ESA you are not actually speaking to people who are trained in ESA processing (how to decide a claim), but are speaking to people who are trained to answer general enquiries on ESA and give information about an ongoing claim that is held on the computer. These people (most of them) will have no idea about the inns and outs of ESA claims which can be quite complex.

 

If you manage to begin making a claim, tell them that you want to claim the income related element from today and are requesting it be backdated to today, because you tried to claim today but were misadvised by the DWP enquiry line that you could not claim. You should not be at financial detriment (even if it is only a few days) because an official acting for the DWP gave you incorrect information.

[Bipolar bear]

Thanks for the replies everyone its brilliant to have people out there who understand the ins and outs of this maze.

We are going to look at the councils benefits advisor and see what they make of it all, atm the letters say we 'need' £399 to live on and we receive £340 I am disabled get DLA mid care and high Mobility been on IB for a long time now and have three children 10,12 and 17 and we are married my wife gets carers allowance as well. Does this sound about right or am I better talking to someone like the benefits adviser?

Once again thanks for answering and it really helps to know there are people out there.

[Nystagmite]

Does the £399 include money for children?

[Bipolar bear]

Yes it does. And for a carer too. Actual figures are total income £341.09 how much the law says we need to live on £399.67, its a lot of money to us.

[MIKEY DABODEE]

your wife can make a claim for Income Support for you and herself, and claim CTC for the children she receives child benefit for.

You would stay on ESA, because its ESA Conts, and your ESA would come off her I.S..

Her grounds to Income Support would be her carers allowance, she would claim as a carer

 

You should be this way entitled to what you were claiming before if you were on IS/IB prior to the switch to ESA,

 

just an option.....

 

this depends of course what your ESA amount you are getting, check out Ericas entitlement link