ESA

Jean

ESA is an indefinite award with regular re-assessment, the DWP should have your next re-assessment date on the computer so give them a call, failing that, the prognosis from the ESA85(A), which can be requested from the DWP, is used to set the date.

Contribution Based ESA is liable to tax, but whether you have to pay any will be dependent on your personal allowance and what other income you have, you should inform HMRC that this is now being paid.

ESA rates are normally increased in April any letter detailing your payments, now, will not take this into account.

You may also be entitled to an ESA(IR) payment in addition to your ESA(CB) one as being in the SG entitles you to the Enhanced Disability Premium which is payable with ESA(IR), this will be dependant on your household income, assets and savings and any hours that a partner works, Expect to receive an ESA3 which captures this information for the DWP.

Well done on the SG award.

Gordon

Jean wrote: Hi Gordon,

Thank you for your reply.

The part of the letter I don't understand is 'The amount of Employment and Support Allowance you get may not change when benefit rates are increased each year'.

There was always an increase in Incapacity Benefit in April of each year.

Might this be because ESA is actually less than Incapacity Benefit and there will be no annual increase until ESA rates catch up?

I'm struggling a bit trying to make sense of it all. Hope someone can help with this.

If you are also receiving a Transitional Payment to make your ESA payments up to the same amount as you received on IB then although your ESA payment will increase, a corresponding amount will be deducted from the Transitional Payment until it is completely eroded, leaving your actual payments unchanged.

Gordon