Hi,

I am sure i have read somewhere that if you are a lone parent who has been claiming IS with a DP, and your entitlement to IS ends because of your childs age, when you move on to ESA, you automatically have the WRAG componenet added to your award, because if you simply got £64.30 per week, you would be £25.00 out of pocket. Does anybody know where i can find information about this? i have searched everywhere i can think of but cannot find anything to confirm that this is the case.

If a client is receiving IS with DP and is a lone parent, that client will remain entitled to IS through ill health when entitlement as lone parent ends - if they provide proof of incapacity ie sick note that relates to a date before IS stopped - claim for ESA should be treated as ICB claim. See DMG 30/09 spelling it out for DM's .

Yes that is the case for lone parents - It's reg 7(c) of the ESA regs.

But as darlocab says they are probably better off just staying on IS as per DMG 30/09

My understanding is that if a claimant is getting IS with a DP then it should not matter what age the child is as they are being paid on the basis that they are incapable of work and not for child care responsibility. IS should therefore continue unaffected.

If the claimant is getting IS on the basis of the child and the child reaches 10 I see no reason why they cannot continue to get IS via another route. In this case on the grounds of Incap provided they show evidence eg. a medical certificate.

This is because IS is paid if you fit into certain groups and you may be in more than one group. The claim comes to an end if you no longer fit into any of the groups, it does not simply come to an end if you stop being in the group for which you claimed and the DM should consider if you qualify by another route before closing the claim.