ESA Support Group and Benefit Payments?

Can anyone help with a query regarding ESA Support Group and entitlement to benefits.

Prior to the ESA Assessment I was in the Working Group and ONLY receiving National Insurance contribution (NIC) from the DWP. However, following the ESA Assessment I have been placed in the Support Group and have been told that due to not paying enough NIC in the proceeding tax years, I will still not be entitled to benefit payments?

Does anyone have a answer to the above?

Hi and Welcome to the forum, you might want to have a look at the following FAQ which explain where everything is

Welcome to Benefits and Work

There are two 'pathways' to claiming ESA. One is via NI contributions and the other is via low income.

It seems that you have failed the NI contribution requirement in that you did not pay enough NI contributions during the 2 full tax years prior to the start of your claim. If you think this is not correct you should contact NI and ask them for your payment history.

The other route is to Income Related ESA for people who have low income. This includes the income/assets of any live-in partner. If any such partner works for 24 hours per week or more, the claim will automatically fail. If you think you should qualify under these conditions you should contact DWP and ask for an ESA3 form. This will take details of your finances.

Asset rule for ESA(IR)


If you fail both of these conditions, then I'm afraid ESA cannot be paid to you

You might want to bookmark/favourite this on your web browser now so that you can find it easily in future. This will allow you to return with further questions/comments without having to start a new topic each time. It helps us enormously when everything relating to the same claim is kept in one place - and I hope you will find it useful too

Thank you for your reply to my query. Yes, very clear about the NI Contributions and Contribution and Income based ESA. What concerned me is I have fallen short on one tax year by a very small amount of money, due to taking a low paid part-time job paying less than £112 a week? This was two years ago and informed by NI that I am not permitted to make up this small shortfall? I am a little confused as I believed the 'contribution based' was different for Support Group, as opposed to Work Related Group? Assets of partner would exclude me from Income Based.