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?

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.

What a strange idea. Where did you get it from?

I'm not sure what happens at the moment for a family who come from the EU with say 4 kids who were all born before April 217. I'm not sure whether they would still get tax credits for all four, I think they would at the moment unless going onto Universal credit which isn't accepting claimants with more then 2 children yet.

Yes they would get TC for all 4 children, just like a british family with 4 children born before the cut off date. The family from the EU would need to be working though, or have worked recently, in order to get the same benefit entitlement as a british family.

You must claim now. You need the NI credits to protect your pension and you are entitled to the income in the same way that older people with large savings are still entitled to claim the pension they have contributed towards.

If you delay your claim to live off of your savings you will lose the chance to claim at all as you must have made NI contributions in the previous couple of years. From CAB website "The first contribution condition for contributory Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) is that you must have actually paid enough Class 1 or 2 National Insurance contributions in at least one of the last two complete tax years before the year in which you claim."

And your not claiming will not change the eligibility criteria for any other claimant.

I'm slightly concerned about the rate however - £125.55 is the weekly support group rate for income related ESA. Contributions based is £109.65. Give the DWP a ring tomorrow and get it clarified, but don't close the claim!

Just when - Great advice. I also think the rate is high. Op I think you may have an overpayment to pay back.

Right spoken to ESA people, i am in fact entitled to 109.00 per week but have chosen not to claim this due to my savings, but will be still be getting my NI contributions paid, which is what i wanted in the first place.

I was informed by DWP that i should claim the money and put it away incase i need it for different things such as higher bills, extra food and taxis and higher electricity or entertainment, whilst i have my operations. Obviously my partner not impressed which has led to many discussions, due to fact he now has to pay all bills, but if he loves me for me than he knew what he was taken on from the start when we first met i was open to my health conditions though at that point working full time, so he this has been a shock for him.

time will tell.

Thank you for all your responses.

A word of warning if you do tell benefits office. Years ago I had need to claim DLA. i then stated taking tablets which by chance appeared to cure me of the reason I had DLA . It was seizures I had and it took a while to work out that they had ceased My consultant confirmed this about one month after my appointment when we discussed the development. DLA people decided I was no longer entitled from date if my appointment and not date he informed me . And so requested quite a lot of money back . As it was I was on a temporary reassessment and after wished I had said nothing and let it peeter out.

Are you going to be contributing to bills yourself from your savings? If I was your partner and you had turned down a 'free' £109/wk income and expected me to make up the difference then I would be extremely unimpressed.

Well before all this confuffle with benefits, the agreement was as mortgage is fully paid and no rent is required, my partner was going to pay all the bills, anyhow!

So i have offered to pay half the bills and he has refused this.

And if this was somebody else, my partner opinion was that why the hell should they claim the money so its a bit hypocritical. he happy for me to claim the cash, but not anybody else in my situation.

I heard alot about this, from many friends, though different areas different things. Im in Essex/London.

We need to sort out our system in the UK. I nmuch of Europe if you have paid in you get benefits when out of work for a year or two. That is a fair system which rewards those wo work very hard. The UK used to have much much lower benefits for those who had no NI contributions and had never done a stroke of work in their lives. that felt fairer and better to me and those who worked had their higher payments when temporarily out of work.

Now those with years of NI contributions seem to get much the same or less than those who have never worked!

Lucy I'm from Holland and the Dutch system is a pretty good example of a working contributions-based system. If you can't work because you are disabled then you absolutely do get help. Nobody is left to starve or be homeless. However, if you have worked and paid in, what you get out is much more generous than it is here - up to 75% of last salary for as many months as you have worked full years. There is a limit, but it's set high. This makes it much easier to find another job, because you can afford interview clothes and travel, and you don't have to worry about suddenly being plunged into poverty. We need a system like that in the UK.

I like the system Scandinavian countries - where everybody gets so much per month, then working you then add to it, so if you do lose money or need sick time off, or compassionate leave, or maternity or paternity you still have money to live off. and to top up benefits.

if your disabled and have yearly check with gp/consultants you get so much on top of the monthly/weekly payment and rent gets paid, and their health system is good. and the wages between lower and higher wages isn't so big. so basically working is a incentive.

I agree and we used to have that here - I think I remember from the 70s or 80s - if you had paid your NI you would get a lot more at least for the first year than just someone on "supplementary benefit" who had no NI compared with "unemployment benefit". We then made the non NI people get much more (to make it more civilised for them) but we never then radically increased what those who have worked for donkeys years and paid in get so we seem to have the worst of all worlds here now plus fairly high taxes too.

If your partner is being at all shirty about bills then sqirrel away evrything you can. You might find you need the cash more than you need him.