Placed in support group - implications ?

Had a reply from DWP last week. They have placed my wife in the support group, on contribution-based ESA. Their breakdown of figures shows she will be receiving exactly what she has been under IB. However they stress that ESA is taxable.

This is the part confusing me, in what it means overall. I earn c. £40,000, will that have any effect ?

Is the reason it is taxable (unlike IB) so that *any* additional income now could trigger tax (unlike before) ?

Also, the letter gave no indication of when a review, or re-assessment would be required. Is there a standard period ? Currently our plan is to simply add all new letters between consultants and GPs (which it's our health authorities policy to copy to patients) to the previous ESA50 "pack", and submit that in future.

As far as I'm aware IB was also taxable, as when I changed from IB to ESA I was sent my P45, which showed how much benefit I'd had. I am also in the support group.

- sorry, in excitement also forgot to thank the contributors here who eased the process for us !

So, we shall write back and request the ESA85A - clearly the ESA50 was as comprehensive as possible, which meant they didn't require a medical.

My wife receives no other income at all, but is on higher-rate DLA (with mobility component). Co-incidentally we did get a letter from the tax office informing us that the child-tax-credit will be withdrawn in April. Initially I thought it was due to the new regulations, and only realised after a few days it was because our son is 16 in April !!! So household income is down £40/month now.

Hi,
Just to let you know that if your son is still in full time education after he has turned 16, you can still get Tax Credits,you will have to contact them to inform them of this. However, this would also depend on your household income.

Good Luck.

Radhika.

Just to follow on:

Should we receive the ESA85A automatically, or do we have to explicitly request it ? Who should we contact ? I notice the letter informing us of the decision actually came from the local JobCentre plus, is this correct ?