End of ESA payments, what next?

I had my interview with a helpful, but very tired looking, chap at the job centre today.

ESA (CB) will stop, his computer said a date in July, previous letters sent to me have stated 2 different dates in June.

I asked him if I could apply for JSA, apparently I would need to be capable of full time work, which I won't be, and the other really fantastic news is that because I've not been working for the last 2 years, I've not been paying any national insurance - which is apparently needed to be able to claim JSA.

It really does seem like the government is making life very difficult for us on purpose.

He seemed to think that I would need a fresh new ailment in order to reapply for ESA.

Is this right?

I won't be well/fixed/better in the foreseeable future (ever if I'm honest, but I shy away from such thoughts as a defense mechanism) but I'm really hoping that I don't get worse.

I never thought I'd be in this situation, it's like a big black hole of confusion.

Any suggestions? (apart from winning the Lotto!)

Darthcranium wrote: I had my interview with a helpful, but very tired looking, chap at the job centre today.

ESA (CB) will stop, his computer said a date in July, previous letters sent to me have stated 2 different dates in June.

I asked him if I could apply for JSA, apparently I would need to be capable of full time work, which I won't be, and the other really fantastic news is that because I've not been working for the last 2 years, I've not been paying any national insurance - which is apparently needed to be able to claim JSA.

It really does seem like the government is making life very difficult for us on purpose.

He seemed to think that I would need a fresh new ailment in order to reapply for ESA.

Is this right?

I won't be well/fixed/better in the foreseeable future (ever if I'm honest, but I shy away from such thoughts as a defense mechanism) but I'm really hoping that I don't get worse.

I never thought I'd be in this situation, it's like a big black hole of confusion.

Any suggestions? (apart from winning the Lotto!)

Hi Dc,

The information that you have been given is nearly correct.

You should be financially assessed when your CB ESA payments are coming to an end.

See, MHB's post earlier on in this topic regarding IR ESA :

www.benefitsandwork.co.uk/forum?view=top...d=10&id=97774#103103

and Gordon's post from this afternoon :

www.benefitsandwork.co.uk/forum?view=top...d=10&id=97787#103173

Payment of CB ESA would be reinstated if you can gain access into The Support Group, (SG) as a result of a review requested by you, due to a deterioration in your condition or the fact that you suffer from new medical conditions.

This could also happen as the result of a future reassessment of your ESA award.

So you would not be "REAPPLYING" for ESA.

However, for this to happen, you must keep claiming ESA and complying with requests to fill in ESA50's etc, even when you may only be receiving NI Credits when your CB ESA payments cease.

You will not have to take part in WFI's/WRA when in receipt of NI Credits only.

You must keep a continuous assessment of (LCW) WRAG. If your claim is broken for more than 12 weeks, the only way that you could be paid CB ESA again would be to gain the necessary NI Contributions from employment.

bro58