ESA enquiry

I have a tenant who received 6 months full pay whilst signed off sick from her employment due to ill health and received a further 6 months at half pay for the following 6 months.  This ended in March 22. No welfare benefits have been claimed. Early retirement is being discussed.with her employer. The tenant is in a care home but still has her tenancy.  There is no date for when she is expected to leave the care home but expects this to be over next couple of months. As she has been in employment for many years, can she claim ESA Contributions based despite there being a 6 month gap from when she last received her salary. She would claim UC for the housing element ?

Worth claiming new style ESA if it speeds things up before she gets home?

My understanding is she’s eligible

BakerK - 01 November 2022 03:57 PM

As she has been in employment for many years, can she claim ESA Contributions based despite there being a 6 month gap from when she last received her salary. She would claim UC for the housing element ?

The qualifying requirement is the NI record for 2020-2021 and 2020 to 2021. If she worked throughout those years and was earning more than £120/week she will meet the requirements and will qualify for new style ESA. Even if she had stopped work in April 2021 she would still qualify. She can backdate the claim by three months. If she is then found to be put in the Support Group that this will mean that she was in ESA Support Group when the UC claim starts and will therefore be entitled to the LCWRA element in UC from the start of the claim.

Thanks for this information , much appreciated