AIBU to cancel my benefits claim.

[Housingcraze]

I have 45k in savings from several inheritances, and am out of work off ill, my partner has moved in with me to my home i own from an inheritance (no mortgage), and earns in excess of 30k a year roughly.

i applied for ESA for my national contributions to be paid, not expecting any money from it to today receiving a letter - to be paid 125.25 per week, which i was pretty shocked tbh, and feel a bit guilty in accepting the money, and even phoned informing them i have savings which im assuming i need to use firstly.

My partner disagrees and says i should openly accept the money and use it?

[Migraleve]

But baby I haven't been talking about pensioners. I have been talking about the OP.

[Babyroobs]

Migraleve -. It is the same principle though whether it's op claiming ESA when she has savings or a pensioner claiming state pension with savings in the bank ! Are you seriously saying that when you come to retire if you have £40k savings in the bank you will turn down your state pension ?

[Migraleve]

I'm not telling you anything. You take what you wish from my posts but I think I have been clear I am talking about the OP with £45k in the bank, £30k household income and no mortgage. Claims ESA when you have that level of financial security is wrong. I don't care that OP is 'entitled', entitled is what's so very wrong with this country.

[Babyroobs]

Why is it wrong though !! You are being ridiculous. If it's wrong then it's wrong for every bloody pensioner in the country who has worked hard to own their own home and build up some savings to claim their pension.

[Babyroobs]

£40k is hardly financially secure, and he partner could leave at any time. Ridiculous.

[Migraleve]

Again I am NOT talking about pensioners.

So are you suggesting we should all claim benefits just in case our partners leave

[Migraleve]

£45k with a home owned outright and a household income of £30k is secure enough imo

[Babyroobs]

No because most of us won't be entitled to claim anything. There is certainly nothing I could currently claim, I'm not ill. But op is wise to continue claiming a benefit which she is entitled to claim on the basis on NI contributions she has made because if her partner did leave her she would have some ( very basic) income coming in. And no you are NOT talking about pensioners but because the benefits are from the same pot I AM making a comparison and a reasonable one .

[firenze86]

Everyone saying £45k + £30k income isn't much to live off - are you insane?

Also sick of reading people's vague posts about "these immigrant families with hundreds of kids" taking all the benefits they can.

My opinion is, you don't need it so don't claim it!

[Babyroobs]

£40k is about 1.5 times the average salary isn't it ? Not going to last long if you are long term ill is it?

[PencilsInSpace]

Trying to make sense of your figures OP, according to this page, the closest would be support group rate (£109.65) plus enhanced disability premium (£15.90) totalling £125.55.

2 problems:

• enhanced disability premium is only for people on income related esa, which you should not be entitled to given your savings and partner's income
  
  

• you would normally have had a 13 week assessment period before being placed in the support group. During this time you would have got £73.10. There are a few circumstances where you don't have the 13 week assessment period, but except for terminal illness, these relate to being moved from IB or IS or having a prior claim to ESA with a short break.
  

So it all sounds a bit strange and I think you need to check they/you have it right.

[Migraleve]

40k is about 1.5 times the average salary isn't it ? Not going to last long if you are long term ill is it?

You keep omitting the £30k annual household income.

[Babyroobs]

I'd be really interested to see how many of you saying you wouldn't claim it would actually claim it if your income was halved overnight due to illness. It's not like your mortgage payments or other bills are going to halve too is it ?

[Babyroobs]

And in fact costs could actually increase hugely in the event of having to for example have an operation. If you have kids then you might have to pay a childminder to collect them from school or look after them if you can't and your partner can't take time off. You have to pay for private physio for your bad back because the Nhs list is long and you just want to get better as soon as you can, you're paying for multiple prescriptions because you are a lot of medications, you have to have the heating on all day because you are home and poorly wheras previously you were out of the house all day. The list of extra expenses incurred when someone is ill is huge.

[PencilsInSpace]

In the past few weeks in my job I have had dealings with a family who have come from Somalia with eight kids, got asylum in The Netherlands for a few years then came to the UK and were immediately able to claim hundreds a month in benefits with one parent working on a low income.

'got asylum in the netherlands for a few years'

These people are refugees. They will have gone through horrific experiences in their home country. Asylum is incredibly hard to get. Refugees are allowed to have their families come and join them because they are likely to never be able to go back home.

It sounds like they have completed 5 years as refugees and have then passed the many other tests for Dutch citizenship, otherwise they would not have EU rights to travel to the UK. So they are now Dutch.

Good luck to them.

[Babyroobs]

Pencils - I'm not against refuges seeking asylum, but surely the Uk already take a lot ourselves. Recently I've seen huge families come from Norway and The Netherlands. I can't think why you'd want to move from those countries unless it's for the generous benefits system here. It's causing huge pressure on our infrastructure but then again Good luck to them.

[Babyroobs]

I don't think we generally see huge families from the UK settling in other EU countries do we? I wonder why not .

[chocolatespiders]

Do they take partners wage into account. I earn £20,000 as a single parent and expected to manage which I do . Surely they would expect partner to support you with his wage.
I really don't know the system though

[Babyroobs]

Chocolate- If someone has paid National Insurance contributions in full and becomes ill and has to give up work then they can claim Contributions based ESA. It is £73 a week for the first 13 weeks then may go up slightly depending which group you are put in after a medical assessment. This small amount of money can be claimed regardless of how much you have in savings or how much your partner earns. It is a small amount of income replacement benefit.

[PencilsInSpace]

They won't have come here as asylum seekers, they'll have come as Dutch citizens.

We take nothing like our fair share of refugees in the UK. We have far harsher systems than elsewhere in Europe and the support we offer while people's claims are assessed is far less generous than elsewhere.

Why does anyone want to move countries? We still have freedom of movement in Europe for a while longer and EU citizens move countries for all sorts of reasons. Because they can. Maybe they moved here because one of the parents was offered the job you mention?

[Babyroobs]

Is this just one of those threads where Op starts a bun fight never to be heard from again ?

[Babyroobs]

Pencils - Yes I'm sure they did come here as Dutch citizens and yes I agree the support we offer refugees is appalling ( ? £27 a week).

[Babyroobs]

And maybe if / when the system is capped at tax credits for 2 kids for new claimants then we'll see the numbers drop . It would be wholly unfair for immigrant families to still be paid for 7/8 kids when British families are limited to help for 2.

[PencilsInSpace]

TC are already capped at 2 children.

[Babyroobs]

Only for third children born after April 2017.