ESA as a student taking a year out?

Good afternoon.

I took a year out from university due to ill health (which eventually ended with me withdrawing from uni altogether a year later) from January 2014 onwards. As I no longer had a student loan income, I was advised by a nurse I could claim ESA. However, I was told by the DWP that I was not able to claim ESA as I was technically still a student, but that if I claimed PIP, I would be able to get ESA even though I was in full time education. In October of 2014, I received my award letter for PIP (high daily living) and received a back payment to cover the eight month period I had waited for my award. I then reapplied for ESA and was placed in the support group in 2025.

My question is this:
Should I have been able to claim some sort of back payment of ESA for the period of time from March 2014 (when I applied for PIP, and when my award is dated from) and March 2015 (when I received my first ESA payment)?

It has only occurred to me today that, had the DWP completed my PIP assessment faster, then I would have received ESA from a much earlier date, and thus received a lot more money overall. Also, I didn't receive ESA for the first year on the grounds that I wasn't receiving PIP, but it turns out that I was entitled to PIP at that point, so now I am wondering whether it was a DWP mistake (though likely a deliberate one) that I didn't receive some sort of ESA back payment.

I would be grateful if you could advise on whether it is worth me trying to contact the DWP (I have extreme anxiety over phone calls, and so only want to do this if there is a chance it would be worth it).

bfisher2394 wrote: Good afternoon.

I took a year out from university due to ill health (which eventually ended with me withdrawing from uni altogether a year later) from January 2014 onwards. As I no longer had a student loan income, I was advised by a nurse I could claim ESA. However, I was told by the DWP that I was not able to claim ESA as I was technically still a student, but that if I claimed PIP, I would be able to get ESA even though I was in full time education. In October of 2014, I received my award letter for PIP (high daily living) and received a back payment to cover the eight month period I had waited for my award. I then reapplied for ESA and was placed in the support group in 2025.

My question is this:
Should I have been able to claim some sort of back payment of ESA for the period of time from March 2014 (when I applied for PIP, and when my award is dated from) and March 2015 (when I received my first ESA payment)?

It has only occurred to me today that, had the DWP completed my PIP assessment faster, then I would have received ESA from a much earlier date, and thus received a lot more money overall. Also, I didn't receive ESA for the first year on the grounds that I wasn't receiving PIP, but it turns out that I was entitled to PIP at that point, so now I am wondering whether it was a DWP mistake (though likely a deliberate one) that I didn't receive some sort of ESA back payment.

I would be grateful if you could advise on whether it is worth me trying to contact the DWP (I have extreme anxiety over phone calls, and so only want to do this if there is a chance it would be worth it).

I'm not sure, you're quite lucky in a way as there was a legal challenge around 2009 about this very issue as intercalating students use to have to wait 6 months before they could claim ESA and were not allowed to claim JSA either unless they agreed to abandon their course.

This meant the only way they'd have been eligible for housing benefit was under low income rules as ESA and JSA are passport benefits to housing benefit/LHA.

I was in this position myself and still get angry about having to rely on credit cards and my savings for six months to survive.

bfisher2394 wrote: Good afternoon.

I took a year out from university due to ill health (which eventually ended with me withdrawing from uni altogether a year later) from January 2014 onwards. As I no longer had a student loan income, I was advised by a nurse I could claim ESA. However, I was told by the DWP that I was not able to claim ESA as I was technically still a student, but that if I claimed PIP, I would be able to get ESA even though I was in full time education. In October of 2014, I received my award letter for PIP (high daily living) and received a back payment to cover the eight month period I had waited for my award. I then reapplied for ESA and was placed in the support group in 2025.

My question is this:
Should I have been able to claim some sort of back payment of ESA for the period of time from March 2014 (when I applied for PIP, and when my award is dated from) and March 2015 (when I received my first ESA payment)?

It has only occurred to me today that, had the DWP completed my PIP assessment faster, then I would have received ESA from a much earlier date, and thus received a lot more money overall. Also, I didn't receive ESA for the first year on the grounds that I wasn't receiving PIP, but it turns out that I was entitled to PIP at that point, so now I am wondering whether it was a DWP mistake (though likely a deliberate one) that I didn't receive some sort of ESA back payment.

I would be grateful if you could advise on whether it is worth me trying to contact the DWP (I have extreme anxiety over phone calls, and so only want to do this if there is a chance it would be worth it).

Also I assume you did claim council tax benefit?

This use to be a catch 22 situation, as an intercalating student is not a student for council tax purposes.

The only way to get around this is to claim council tax benefit but again, this can only be done under low income rules although I'm not sure how Universal Credit affects this now.

Another thing that I'm angry about lol as I had to also pay council tax for those six months too.

Hi,
If you applied for ESA and were refused (because you were not in receipt of PIP) and received a letter stating such, then you have a case for backpay from the date that your PIP Award commences.

If you did not apply at all you won’t get anything