return to ESA after working for 9 months

My cl was getting IR/ESA in support group, he only rec contribution amount due to other family income, he gets PIP highest rates, he started work in Nov 2022 up to August 2023 then stopped work, he want to get back onto old style esa, is it possible ???
he gets various war pensions and occ pensions and his wife gets CA
is there any more info I need to get from the client ???

It was not permitted work as far as I know

The linking rules allow a new claim for ESA to be linked to a previous one if the gap is less than 12 weeks. It’s been longer than this so it looks like these don’t apply.

Even if it was less than 12 weeks, it does still require a new ESA claim to be made, which would mean it is new style ESA anyway.

The gap means that any new ESA claim will have to meet the NI contribution conditions in 20/21 and 21/22

thanks Seand