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Forum Home  →  Discussion  →  Work capability issues and ESA  →  Thread

More than 2 children -  cESA claim in full UC area. 

ASH
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Welfare officer - St Christopher's Hospice, SE London

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Total Posts: 110

Joined: 16 June 2010

Claimant only just diagnosed with progressive disease - family income high now but not sure how things will be as illness progresses.  In full UC area but has more than the allowed 2 children.  Should we try to claim legacy cESA or ‘new style cESA’ ?

Jon (CANY)
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Welfare benefits - Craven CAB, North Yorkshire

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Not definitive, but gov.uk suggests it’s old-style:

If you’re not eligible to claim UC in your area then new style ESA won’t apply to you. You may want to claim Employment and Support Allowance.

Also (and I’m not quite sure of the provenance of this):
http://ervas.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/DWP-UPDATE-FEB-2017.pdf

From 6 April, people living in a Universal Credit Full Service area who have
three or more children will not be able to make a new claim for UC, new style
ESA / JSA. They will instead be directed to claim a legacy benefit (e.g.
JSA/ESA/Housing Benefit) and Tax Credits.

Sally63
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Generalist Adviser, Southwark Citizens Advice Bureau

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The 2017/18 CPAG welbens says (pg 259) “Between 6 April 2017 and 31 October 2018 if you already have 3 or more children you will not cannot claim UC for the first time” (then a couple of caveats about previous awards of UC)

We have had our first case of this. Woman with four children, youngest 2 years old, directed by the Jobcentre to claim Income Support and it has been awarded.

Jon (CANY)
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Welfare benefits - Craven CAB, North Yorkshire

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Total Posts: 1362

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Hi ASH, did you happen to find out which ‘style’ of c-ESA was awarded in your case?

We’ve had a client in this scenario. We have been advised by claims maintenance, who consulted UC accounts developers(?), that it should be new-style. Meanwhile, the client has apparently been issued a new-style form which never arrived, and had a claim for old-style ESA taken over the phone.

[ Edited: 14 Sep 2017 at 02:43 pm by Jon (CANY) ]