Contribution conditions- late payment of contributions

My client claimed ESA in 2014 and asked for it to be backdated to December last year. In December they would only have got Cont based ESA due to their then partners income. The couple split up in February and my client has been awarded IR ESA from then on.

My client seems to meet the first contribution condition for cont based ESA but not the second as their contribution record is not sufficent for 2011-2012. As they were self employed through a good part of ‘11/‘12 they have the option of making a late contribution to bring their NI record up to date.

What I am not sure of is whether this would allow a backpayment of cont based ESA from December 2013 onwards. Reg 4.(8)(b) of the SS(Crediting and Treatment of Contributions and NI Numbers) Regs 2001 says that any contributions paid after the end of the benefit year preceeding the relevant benefit year cannot be paid in relation to the benefit claimed until a period of 42 days has expired.

What I am not sure about is;

Whether the Cont Based ESA can only be paid from a date 42 days after the ‘missing’ contributions are paid (in other words you don’t get paid for six weeks).

or

Whether the Cont based ESA can be backdated to December last year once the contribution record is up to date but the claimant has to wait 42 days before any arrears of contribution based ESA can be paid.

I seem to remember from similar rules for IB that it is the first option but the more I read Reg 4(8)(b) the more confused/less convinced I get.

Any thoughts or references gratefully recieved!

To clarify - we are talking about class 2 self-employed contributions, yes? You don’t mean class 3 voluntary conts, I assume.

Thanks for the reply, yes it is the S/E contributions