esa- short fall in contributions

joanne118 wrote: Hi trying to claim ESA for my husband I work full time so the only one he can claim is contribution based but he has a gap in his contributions ESA lady told me to phone up national insurance people and pay and then phone ESA back and get them to access the claim again but the man at national insurance said even if I pay the £600 its class 3 contributions and won't help my husband get ESA hope that makes sense anyone had same problem ??

Contributions can be confusing, most letters from the DWP show that they don't even understand it.

To make a claim for Contribution Based ESA your husband needs to have either Class1 NI Contributions from employment or Class 2 NI Contributions from self-employment in the two Tax Years 2013-14 and 2014-15.

I'm afraid that HMRC are correct, you cannot buy Class 1 or 2 Contributions only Class 3 and 4 which count towards a full State Pension but not benefits.

Gordon

joanne118 wrote: He applied in DEC and they looked at tax years 12/13 and 13/14 the shortfall is in 12/13 so I thought by ringing them in April they would look at tax years 13/14 and 14/15 and we would be fine when would he have to put in a claim for them to look at years 13/14 14/15 for the claim if that makes sense

Yes the Tax Years used changes in January, so last December it was 2012-13 and 2013-14 and now it is 2013-14 and 2014-15.

Gordon