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I am sure I have read somewhere that claimants that have been converted from IB to ESA will not receive the annual increase, can anyone confirm this or did I dream it?

For example; Claimant receiving IB at £99.85 p/w.
Claimant receives a letter in February 2012 informing him that his entitlement to IB will increase to £105.95 (annual increase)
In the mean time claimant has been converted to ESA and placed in the WRAG, he should receive £94.25.  However, receives a transitional addition, which takes him up £99.85.

Will claimants ESA be increased to £105.95 in April?

Cookie - 20 March 2012 12:22 PM

I am sure I have read somewhere that claimants that have been converted from IB to ESA will not receive the annual increase, can anyone confirm this or did I dream it?

For example; Claimant receiving IB at £99.85 p/w.
Claimant receives a letter in February 2012 informing him that his entitlement to IB will increase to £105.95 (annual increase)
In the mean time claimant has been converted to ESA and placed in the WRAG, he should receive £94.25.  However, receives a transitional addition, which takes him up £99.85.

Will claimants ESA be increased to £105.95 in April?

Ok, the more I look at this question the sillier it sounds…I did dream it didn’t I?

Sitting here rather red faced!!  Think I need a holiday!!

If the ESA rate is less than the incapacity rate, a transitional payment is awarded, so nobody loses at the point of change. This rate of benefit is frozen until the ESA rate catches up as benefits are uprated. So if, after the uprating, the rate of ESA is still lower than the Incap rate, your client won’t get the increase. See:
http://www.dwp.gov.uk/docs/ib-reassessment-transitional.pdf
for more information and examples.

Hope that makes some sense.

ruthch - 20 March 2012 04:03 PM

If the ESA rate is less than the incapacity rate, a transitional payment is awarded, so nobody loses at the point of change. This rate of benefit is frozen until the ESA rate catches up as benefits are uprated. So if, after the uprating, the rate of ESA is still lower than the Incap rate, your client won’t get the increase. See:
http://www.dwp.gov.uk/docs/ib-reassessment-transitional.pdf
for more information and examples.

Hope that makes some sense.

I think so. So I am right in what I am saying? 

My client has had his ESA “transitional addition”, which has taken him up to his old rate of IB, which was £99.00. 

However, before her received his ESA and “transitional addition” he received a letter in Feb informing him that his IB entitlement will increase (annual increase) to £105.00…so am I right in saying his ESA will not increase to £105.00 in April because the transitional addition will never be increased until ESA catches up with IB.

If this is the case, then everyone that is transferred over to ESA after April will receive the transitional addition up to £105.00, which is unfair on the people that were transferred before April because they will miss out on the annual increase.

Am I making sense…or am I just driving myself insane?

Ps Thanks very much for the link, very useful.