ESA

[Katyy]

Hi. I have been off work sick for 3 weeks, I’m not going to be able to go back for a while if ever. I’m 65 so only have 8 months left before I can claim my state pension.
My company pay SSP only. I’ve had an email to say my earnings haven’t been enough over the last 8 weeks so I’m not eligible for SSP. They have attached a form, and said I may be able to claim ESA. I’ve looked into it, but it says my husbands private pension will be taken in to condsideration when claiming. Anyone know what’s involved ?

If you have enough national insurance contributions to make a claim for new style ESA which is contributions based ESA then your husband's private pension has nothing to do with it. It is based on your NI contributions. If you claimed a private pension of more than £85 a week then that would affect payments but not if it's your husbands.

However if you have not earned enough to qualify for SSP you may not have earned enough to pay NI over the two qualifying tax years which would be 2020-21 and 2019-20. I guess it depends if you were a higher earner during these two tax years? You can check your NI contributions by going to the Gov.uk site and opening a government gateway account if you don't already have one set up.

I guess you may have been looking at information for Income related ESA rather than contributions based ESA, in which case your husband's private pension would affect that. However no one can make a new claim for Income related ESA these days as it has been replaced by Universal credit.

Thank you for replying. I’m finding it difficult to navigate. It really does read as though my husbands pension would be taken into consideration. Probably my age 🙄

Hi. Just to let you know just in case anybody else is looking for the same information. When claiming contributory ESA your husbands private pension if over £85 per week will be taken into consideration, and your ESA payments will be reduced.

Ignore the last comment I’ve had incorrect information from Turn2us. Spoke with DWP they have said it’s not means tested, only if I was claiming a private pension.