Dates used to award contribution based ESA

tango wrote:

So are you saying Gordon that any body who has been on incapacity benefit for over a year and are then placed in the wrag group on their reassessment wont be able to claim esa after their year is up because they wont have enough stamps paid.

tango

It's not quite that simple, which I am sure is no surprise.

First to be clear, these matters relate to Contribution Based ESA and not Income Related ESA.

Secondly, The Welfare Reform Bill introduces an additional condition, that requires one of the qualifying years to be later than those used for the previous period of benefit. This will affect anybody who has been in receipt of a contribution based benefit for more than a year.

Lastly, a claimant would need to have accumulated sufficient qualifying NI credits to meet the requirements for ESA(CB).

The Rightsnet forum is suggesting, that a person would need to work for at least 18 months before being able to qualify for ESA(CB) again.

Gordon