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

Clt’s partner changing jobs- will they need to apply for UC? 

trottmichael
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Citizens Advice Lancashire

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Total Posts: 4

Joined: 26 September 2019

Hello everyone, thank you in advance to anyone who can help me with this query.

We have a client who is currently working four hours per week, her partner claims ESA and is in the support group, not clear if this is IR or CB ESA. The clt herself does not claim any benefits. She is concerned that, by switching jobs, this will be a UC trigger and she they will need to submit a joint claim for UC. From all the sources I have studied, this does not appear to be a UC trigger as the clt’s partner’s entitlement to ESA does not appear to be changing, only that his wife is changing jobs. It is unclear how much her earnings will change by doing this but she advised that the change in earnings will be minimal. Could someone please advise me if by doing this the DWP would see this as a change of circumstances and therefore her partner’s ESA would terminate and they would need to apply for UC?

Thank you again.

Daphne
Administrator

rightsnet writer / editor

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Joined: 14 March 2014

There’s no need for a new claim for any benefit - they can stay on current benfits. If it’s income-related the ESA claim would only end if her hours of work go above 24 or the earnings are high enough to reduce the award to nil which doesn’t sound likely from what you say.

Elliot Kent
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Shelter

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Joined: 14 July 2014

As with many questions we get coming up, the answer is that there is no such thing as a “UC trigger”.

The effect of UC is that (subject to SDP):
(1) New claims cannot be made for legacy benefits
(2) Anyone can choose to claim UC
(3) Everything else stays the same.

The facts you have given would not have involved any sort of new claim being made for anything if UC did not exist, so things just carry on as before.