Transfer to ESA from IB

Have been told that I may not get ESA (even if am assessed as eligible for it on grounds of severe mental health issues) as I have been on IB for 2.5 years and my partner earns over £16K. Thus I can't qualify for either contribution or income-based ESA. Does anyone know if this is so? Am absolutely sick with worry over this.

If you are awarded Contribution Based ESA then your partners income is irrelevant. You can only be awarded CB ESA if you have paid sufficient NIC during the relevant tax years.


If you are currently claiming IB and are transferred over to ESA then you will be transferred over to CB ESA.

Thanks for reply. However I have also been told from someone at my local jobcentre that the NI contributions that are made for you when on IB only count towards retirement provision and that such contributions do not count towards satisfying conditions towards any other benefits - ie ESA. Hence my worry. Could the jobcentre lady be misinformed do you think?

This is a question to which I too have heard conflicting answers. I would be extremely grateful if anyone knows if NI contributions made while on incapacity benefit will count when claimants are transferred to ESA.
Thanks

I'll try and give my understanding of the NI Conts issue I think you are referring to here. Be aware that, although I used to work in DWP, it was many years ago. However, I think the principles will mainly be the same re: NI contributiuons and IB.

Firstly, IB is assessed using NI contributions from 'qualifying tax years'. These will have been prior to a claim for IB. When you first start claiming there is/was a date called PIE ('period of interruption of employment') which is used to assess which tax years to use.

When the transfer to ESA goes ahead your PIE date will not change, so the tax years used for assessing your benefit entitlement will not change.

Secondly, NI conts are 'credited' to you while you are in receipt of IB. This means that they count towards your pension entitlement, but are not assessed the same way as NI conts paid by those working.

Therefore, if you were to make a fresh claim for a benefit which is based on NI conts, and the PIE date did not 'link'
(the linking period used to be 8 weeks in my day) then any new PIE date would be based on different tax years which may affect your benefit entitlement.

('Linking' is/was a way of keeping the same PIE date for assessing claims. For example, if someone transferred from one benefit based on NI conts to another based on NI conts within 8 weeks then the PIE date would remain the same).

Hope this makes some sense!!

Hi, I can only go on personal experience, but when my IB was disallowed last July (had been on it for two years) I applied two weeks later for CB ESA which was allowed. So it would appear there is still a form of linking rule. Hope this helps.