Reinstating income-related ESA - possible?

Hi All

Client has learning difficulties and unable to work since she left school 20 years ago.
She initially moved out of the family home and into supported accommodation in 2008 and at that time claimed income support which was later transferred to income-related ESA (10/2012) and when she married/lived with her husband he was added to her benefit claim. He also has learnign difficulties and the local council was his corporate appointee.

A few years later a corporate appointee for Client’s husband undertook to meddle in the household benefits and at some point in 2014-15 he was awarded ESA and Client was added to his claim (as partner) – her entitlement continued as an ESA credit-only claim. We cannot establish any more than this as there is no comms with husband.

They have now separated and Client would be much better off if she were able to reinstate income-related ESA rather than claiming UC. Is this possible at all?

I’m annoyed that the corporate appointee has effectively cost my client her legacy benefits and she did not understand the ramifications of their actions.

Was she migrated from IS before May 2012?  If she was, I wonder whether this is a sort of mirror image of the LEAP cases where DWP failed to look at ESA(ir) for people migrating from IB - if she migrated from IS, would DWP have considered ESA(c)?  For someone who was already an adult before May 2012 and was disabled since childhood, she should have been entitled to ESA(c) as well as ESA(ir).  There were no new awards of ESA(c) from 2012 to people disabled since youth, and existing WRAG claims ended, so this only works if she migrated before 2012.  She also needs to have been in the support group to remain entitled to ESA(c) all this time.  Could be a way back there?

Interesting comment, thanks.

She migrated in October 2012!

I’ll have to look carefully at the relevant commencement order and any transitional provisions it contains, but in that case I think she might have missed the cut for ESA(c) based on the contribution waiver ... which means she doesn’t have any old-style ESA to upgrade to ESA(ir) once more.

Thanks for offering to check… I suspect however that there will be no way back to her IRESA.