Hi, Possibly not an area that crops up often, but wondering if anyone can give me some advice. My husband died suddenly and unexpectedly 4 weeks ago aged 61, as you can imagine there is a lot to sort and get my head around. I get New Style contributory ESA, I also get ill health retirement pensions from previous employers (I already get deductions off my ESA for these). My son gets income related ESA (due to autism and related issues) and hasn't been able to work. My husband has numerous workplace pensions which will probably pay out partial benefits to dependents. Some pensions were in payment already to my husband, some weren't. My questions are 1. Would the payouts to me from my husbands pensions count as pension income of mine now, his pensions didn't affect my ESA before he died? Thus reducing further the amount of ESA I would get? 2. Would payouts to my son affect the amount of ESA he gets and possibly trigger a change of circumstances and a forced move to Universal Credit?
My child tax credits have already been stopped with immediate effect and I don't qualify for transitional protection now (was within window for this having received letter previously to move over by mid February)
