Severe Disability Premium,

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Yeah, the SDP isn't awarded automatically - you need to complete a one page form (used to be form IS10, not sure if that still applies). You could always write to them and ask for it, I suppose, but the phone line thing is getting out of hand. Of course, getting the government to spend any money improving stuff like that is a non-starter. The only thing they seem to be happy to spend cash on these days is new and elaborate ways to deny people benefits.

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Ten pages? Ouch.

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Yeah, standard daily living rate of PIP qualifies. It's not correct to say that it has "nothing" to do with ESA, though - the SDP is a premium added to income related ESA (similar things exist for JSA, IS and SPC), so the premium should be paid with ESA. Are you currently in receipt of ESA?

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Yes, that makes a difference - you would not normally get the SDP if you are on ESA©. But there is one case where you might: if you have applied for both ESA© and ESA(IR), qualify for both and receive ESA© in preference because your entitlement to both is the same, then you would normally be entitled to premiums such as the SDP. In such cases you would end up with an award that is partly ESA© and partly ESA(IR).

 

The most common situations where this applies will be people who have no partner and no other income from employment or pensions, but who have worked prior to claiming and thus meet the contribution conditions.

 

Edited to add: this may be why you have been sent an ESA3 - you had not previously applied for ESA(IR) and so they have sent you one so that you can make that application.

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Of course you can apply for ESA© only: you can decline to provide, on your initial claim, the information the DWP needs to consider ESA(IR) entitlement and still be considered for ESA©. The question discussed in that link seems to something like "if you do that and subsequently change your mind, can your revised claim for ESA(IR) be backdated to the original date of your ESA© application?"

 

I hope so, because it's my view that the implications of making an ESA© only claim are not made adequately clear during the initial claim process. Nonetheless, many people don't wish to provide the DWP with the ESA(IR) claim information because it's a lot more involved and, frankly, a lot more intrusive. So, for example, if you know for a fact that your partner's income nils your IR entitlement, it seems fairly obvious that some folks would not want to supply such information as part of a claim to a benefit they know they're not entitled to.

 

The only link there that I could read referred to conversion awards, and that's a different question: I don't think it's reasonable that someone who was awarded IB 15 years ago should have to jump through hoops to demonstrate IR entitlement today simply because they didn't meet the conditions for an IS award on the grounds of incapacity 15 years ago. But in a case where someone simply declined to provide IR claim information when they made an initial ESA© claim, what is the DWP supposed to do? Send out an ESA3 every few weeks just in case they change their minds?

 

More sensibly, they could send out an ESA3 when the claimant does something that indicates they have changed their minds: like asking for an SDP. Of course, if the claimant did make an IR claim and the DWP is now acting as if they didn't, that's a different matter.

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Indeed, this makes some sense now. As you rightly conclude, during your time in the forces you will have paid NI, so when you claimed IB you would have been entitled to it (IB was a contributory benefit). When the ESA migration took place you ended up on ESA© because of your prior contributions. The contention in the Rightsnet posts that Speedfreek linked to is that you should also have been considered for ESA(IR) since yours was a conversion award - I agree with that point of view but it seems the DWP may need some...persuasion.

 

Anyhow, presumably they've sent you an ESA3 form so that they can consider you for an IR award. Since you live alone there's obviously no partner's income to consider. If you have no other income (pension, rent from property etc) and no savings over £16,000 then you might well be entitled. If you are awarded IR, the SDP should be considered automatically.