Advise on ESA

[Spiritualme]

Hello, I am new on Mumsnet I have just registered today, as I desperately need some advise. I really hope that someone can help me. My question is this ........ I am 60 years of age and I have worked full time for all of my life since leaving school at the age of 16. For the last 25 years I have been self employed . My national insurance record shows that I have a total of 35 years NI Contribution, my last NI contribution I made was in 2016. As I have accumulated 35 years full contributions by 2016 I have opted out to pay NI from 2016 up until present day, so therefore I did not make anymore contributions. Unfortunately, my health has rapidly declined and I am now sadly looking to claim for some help. However reading the internet it states that in order to be eligible to claim for ESA you need to have paid the last two years NI Contributions. Please could anyone tell me if this is correct and that if I do not pay the last 2 years NI Contributions I will not get any benefit? I would be extremely grateful for any advise. Thank you

So sorry about your health.

All the advice is very clear that you have to have paid NI in the last 2-3 years to get New Style ESA.

If you haven’t, then you need to look at Universal Credit instead. You don’t need to have paid NI for that, but it’s income based so you can’t get it if you have substantial savings.

Good luck.

Yes ESA can be claimed on income based level regardless of NI. Just apply you can beat if you are not entitled they will let you know so enough!

To claim New style ESA now you would need to have paid or been credited with NI contributions during the tax years 2020-21 and 2019-20, so it does not sound like you will qualify. Unfortunately it doesn't matter how many years you have previously paid.
If you do not have savings over 16k, then you should look at Universal credit. Any savings over 6k would reduce the amount you receive each month. You would get a standard element initially plus help towards rent if you pay rent. If you are unfit to work then you would need to declare your health condition on the Uc application and hand in sick notes. After a month or so they should send you a UC50 health questionnaire to complete then you would have a health assessment which cn take some months. If you are awarded LCWRA ( Limited capability for work and work related activity ) after assessment then the amount of UC you receive would rise as you would have the extra LCWRA element added.

Regarding UC it would also depend if you are part of a couple, if so your partners income would also be taken into consideration.

In terms of new style ESA, no you won’t get paid. BUT, you should claim. This will give you NI contributions which will mean once you have sufficient contributions you will get paid. Get your GP to sign you off sick - back date this to when you first became unwell and have it cover 3 months into the future. This should cover the assessment phase for ESA.

Have you thought about claiming PIP (Personal Independence Payment) - a disability benefit? If your health condition has impacted your ability to manage daily living and / or mobility for the past 3 months, and you’re likely to be ill for the next 9 months. You may have a claim.

Thank you so much for all your very helpful information, I really do appreciate any advice given. . After reading your advice i would be very grateful if you could advice my husband and myself on the best course of action. My husband is aged 57 and we live in a private rented property ,we have no children. My husband and i have been in a self employed partnership Leaflet Distribution business for the past 25 years with no staff. As i mentioned in my initial post, my health conditions have rapidly declined and my husband is also suffering with a number of health issues to the point that we are both really finding it difficult to carry out our business on a full-time basis. Both myself and my husband are finding it very, very difficult going outside and walking in all weathers, posting and delivering door to door literature. My health conditions are: Osteoporosis, Osteoarthritis, Raynaud's Disease and I also suffer with Depression of which my GP has prescribed Citalopram 30mg. My husband's health conditions are: Asthma, Arthritis in both knees and he is also suffering with severe depression taking Citalopram 40mg. My husband has a full NI Contribution record to date and if needs be i can back pay my NI for the tax years 2019-2020 and 2020-2021 with self employment voluntary Class 2, if it strengthens our position. Ideally, we would like to continue running our business for as long as possible but due to our health conditions this would be on limited hours until we reach the point that our health conditions prevent ourselves from continuing working altogether. The hours that we can manage at present are around 16hrs each per week. The income that we would generate from the limited hours would be a joint total in the region of £300.00 per month. We also have no savings above 6k. We would both be very grateful for your help and advice as we do not fully understand how UC works. Would we be allowed to continue running our business self employed on limited hours and earning a low income whilst both claiming ESA? Can you claim both ESA and UC at the same time? We have also read about the minimum income floor, would this apply to ourselves? Thank you again for all of your help.

@Spiritualme

Thank you so much for all your very helpful information, I really do appreciate any advice given. . After reading your advice i would be very grateful if you could advice my husband and myself on the best course of action. My husband is aged 57 and we live in a private rented property ,we have no children. My husband and i have been in a self employed partnership Leaflet Distribution business for the past 25 years with no staff. As i mentioned in my initial post, my health conditions have rapidly declined and my husband is also suffering with a number of health issues to the point that we are both really finding it difficult to carry out our business on a full-time basis. Both myself and my husband are finding it very, very difficult going outside and walking in all weathers, posting and delivering door to door literature. My health conditions are: Osteoporosis, Osteoarthritis, Raynaud's Disease and I also suffer with Depression of which my GP has prescribed Citalopram 30mg. My husband's health conditions are: Asthma, Arthritis in both knees and he is also suffering with severe depression taking Citalopram 40mg. My husband has a full NI Contribution record to date and if needs be i can back pay my NI for the tax years 2019-2020 and 2020-2021 with self employment voluntary Class 2, if it strengthens our position. Ideally, we would like to continue running our business for as long as possible but due to our health conditions this would be on limited hours until we reach the point that our health conditions prevent ourselves from continuing working altogether. The hours that we can manage at present are around 16hrs each per week. The income that we would generate from the limited hours would be a joint total in the region of £300.00 per month. We also have no savings above 6k. We would both be very grateful for your help and advice as we do not fully understand how UC works. Would we be allowed to continue running our business self employed on limited hours and earning a low income whilst both claiming ESA? Can you claim both ESA and UC at the same time? We have also read about the minimum income floor, would this apply to ourselves? Thank you again for all of your help.

You need to make a joint claim for Universal credit. This will give you help with your rent. You both need to start handing in sick notes if your illnesses are affecting your ability to work. As long as each of your earnings are less than 16 x national minimum wage per week you can be referred for a health assessment. You should both also consider starting claims for PIP which is a longer term disability benefit and is seperate to PIP. You can both be assessed on Uc for limited capability for work, only one of you can be awarded LCWRA ( Limited capability for work and work related activity ) but if one was awarded PIP then the other could claim carers element of Uc. It would all depend really what the outcomes of assessments were. Either way if you only have income of £300 per month you should claim UC without delay to get help with rent.

Sorry I should also add that yes minimum income floor would apply until one of you is assessed and awarded LCWRA. Self employment can be tricky on UC.
If ESA ( contributions based) is claimed separately to UC, then it is paid separately but deducted pound for pound you are no better off financially although it is still worth claiming for other reasons.

Hello again and thank you for your very helpful advice. Please could you be kind enough to clarify a couple of points that you posted, thank you. As regards to handing in sick notes, will a GP issue sick notes stating that we are only capable of undertaking limited hours of work due to our illnesses? As regards to each of our earnings being less than 16x national minimum wage per week, how many hours per week do UC calculate as being a full working week and do they then use the gross amount or the nett amount on self employment as our earnings? Finally, if one ourselves is assessed and awarded LCWRA would the minimum income floor still apply to the other one, as we are in a partnership business? I apologise for the queries raised but we are really struggling to understand the UC system. Hope you understand our position. Many thanks again.

I think you need to go and get some advice (that isn’t supposed to sound rude). I’m guessing Babyroobs works in Welfare Rights/ advice work and as do I. You are opening yourself up to getting some duff advice by posting these questions on an Internet forum. Your situation sounds a wee bit complex. I could certainly advise you - but you really would be better off seeing someone local face to face and establishing that relationship with that person or organisation. Potentially you’ll need support with form filling - PIP claims and the UC or ESA50 (work capability assessment forms)… if you get turned down you’ll need to know/ have support with the Mandatory Reconsideration and worse case scenario appeals process.

If you google the name of your local county or district council welfare rights service initially. If there is one - go to them. Alternatively look up to see if you have a local unemployed workers centre. Sometimes CAB can help, but they don’t necessarily have the level of expertise a specific benefits service would have.

Good luck!