Is ESA means tested ?.

Hi everyone have just had tribunal results and have won both of my appeals for IB and ESA.
When i first lost my claim for IB i was sent forms to claim ESA.I first received payment for two weeks and then was informed as i was receiving IND INJURIES benifits i could no longer get ESA as i was receiving enough money to live on. I was then asked to go for another medical for my claim for ESA which was rejected. I rang DWP about the two weeks benefits i had received and asked if i had to pay it back and was told dont worry about it we will write it off.
For the last 11 months i have been living on my wits end and now i have won my appeals will my ESA payment be means tested and still have to live on my meagre IND INJURIES benefits.
Before my first medical i was receiving both IB and IND INJS no problem.
Thanks for reading so does anybody know if ESA is means tested.
Regards Pete

If you were on IB and are now claiming ESA with no interruption, then you should be entitled to contributions-based ESA now that you have won your appeals.

However, now that you have won both your appeals, it is open to you to continue to claim IB until you are migrated to ESA. To see whether you are better off doing this, it would be worth getting face-to-face advice from a welfare adviser.

In relation to the two weeks benefits - if you are overpaid benefits and it is not in any way your fault, i.e. you have given the DWP all the information they need to make their decision to pay or not pay, you do not have to repay the money.

So is "contributions based" ESA not means tested? Is that indefinite (if one is in the support group) or is it means tested after a set period of time? Thanks.

Contributions-based ESA isn't means-tested. You get it if you've paid enough NI contributions.

However, you've picked up on an important point. The government plans to bring in a change to ESA. At present, if you're on ESA(CB) it carries on being ESA(CB) for as long as you claim it.

However, the government plans to change it so that if you're put in the WRAG, it changes to income related (means tested) ESA after a year, but not if you're put in the support group.

The government still has to get the legislation through parliament, so we can't give you an exact date when that will happen.

Thanks for the replies. So how does that fit in with their statement that no-one currently on IB will be worse off on ESA?