ESA NICB Query

Bud wrote: You maybe right Bro58
Its hard to accept that after 365 days that I wont be getting any benefits at all even although I have well documented health problems.

Maybe one day somebody will find a Rosetta stone to dechyper the ESA hieroglyphs

The major issue for anybody wanting to re-claim ESA(CB) after having it time limited, is the new third Contribution condition introduced by the Welfare Reform Act 2012, that requires one of the tax years used for NI Contributions to be newer than the ones used previously to claim the benefit, which is not mentioned to in the CAB document that you refer to.

Ignoring any other issues with NI Contributions, even for someone who was working immediately prior to their claiming ESA, there are only a narrow set of circumstances in which they would be able to make a new claim for ESA(CB). The Contribution rules were more limited under IB, so they will not be able to meet this additional condition, which was the intention of this clause.

Gordon

Bud wrote: so in theory esa is not a continuation of IB but a new claim, and they are wanting somebody to work for a year who are unfit to work, in reality they are targeting people like me that has been on IB for a while

That is not what I said

As I said I a previous post, when you were transferred from IB to ESA you were not required to meet the Contribution Conditions as you had already done so for IB.

However, to become eligible for ESA(CB) again then you need to make a new claim for ESA(CB), this has to be separated from the original claim by a minimum period of 12 weeks or it is classed as a continuation, and you need to meet all three of the Contribution conditions to be eligible.

As I understand it, the Government's argument is that those who are not eligible for ESA(IR) at the end of the 365 days have an alternate means of supporting themselves, in your case, a partner working full time. I offer no comment on the validity of this argument.

Gordon