self employed Esa claim

As a self employed person who hasn't worked for 4 years because of ill health and disability, I applied for ESA on the basis of my NIC contributions and was turned down on the basis they were insufficient. My business has had no turnover and obviously I have had income from it during those 4 years. However, I have maintained my self employed class 2 contributions. I have since got a pension quote from the DWP website which shows my contribution to be 30 years from the maximum requirement of 30 years. I would welcome suggestions about how I could pursue this and what action to take.

Hi Ada,

National insurance contributions aren't something that we have specialist knowledge of here. But if you're uunhappy with a decision in relation to your NICs then you should appeal in the normal way within the one month time limit and seek help from an advice agency.

Good luck,

Steve

The benefit centre does not have access to your national insurance. You should first contact your benefit centre (dealing with your ESA claim) and ask what tax years are you short to qualify for ESA. This information should also be on the letter advising you of your decision to ESA. You will then need to contact the "national insurance office" and check with them if you have paid the relevant national insurance stamps for the relevant tax years. If you have, the benefits office can communicate with the National insurance office to update your claim and award you benefit, this does take a number of weeks. If you haven't paid enough you can pay the national insurance stamps but you will not qualify for ESA until 6 weeks after you have paid them.