Leaving my job due to illness and claiming ESA

Welshlady1212 wrote: Hi all,

I'm Newtown the forum. I'm in desperate need of some advice please. Currently I'm on SSP and I'm struggling and cannot see myself back in work. I've rung C,A.B. And they have said that if I leave work and try and claim ESA then it will take 13weeks until I get my money as I'm taking myself out of work and still get SSP.

Is this correct??? I'm so lost and confused at what to do .

Not even close!

First of all I would not resign from your current employment without getting trained advice first.

At the moment, as you are receiving SSP you cannot make a claim for ESA, When your SSP ends you can make a claim for ESA for the day after, you will need your employer to provide you with an SSP1 form confirming that your SSP has ended.

You can make the ESA claim a couple of weeks in advance of your SSP ending, just make sure that the start date is for the day after the SSP ends. You will need to provide the DWP a Fit Note as part of your claim so you need to speak to your GP.

Payment for ESA should start in 7-10 days.

Have a look at our ESA Claim guides for more details

www.benefitsandwork.co.uk/help-for-claimants/esa1

If you have more questions then please reply to this post and we will do our best to help.

Gordon

Welshlady1212 wrote: Thank you for the quick reply Gordan.

I'm unable to get any trained advice. I've looked and doesn't seemed to be any.

The guy at C.A.B said that if I did decide to leave my job that I wouldn't be able to make a claim as I'm choosing to put myself out of work and therefore would not be entitled to any benefit for up to 13 weeks as I'm in effect santioning myself (if that makes sense).

I'm just concerned that if I ring Esa people up they will say I'm not entitled to anything

The CAB person is quoting the rules for JSA not ESA, ESA takes no account of your reasons for leaving work.

Gordon