ESA claim

Hi , back again going on and on , sorry! Right I have spoken with my GP and I did not even ask for a fit note but she insisted and is
backdating it to December. Now I have to decide whether to use it.

I am debating whether to:

1) not do anything with it. The plus of this being that I do not want put my landlord's contact details on the ESA form . Also it would mean I only have the PIP to cope with.
2) fill in the whole ESA form to gain NI credits. But I have 33 years of those anyway so am not sure the stress of the whole procedure is worth it at this moment in time. Plus although it would mean ESA would be in place for me when my savings drop to below 16000.00 , a couple of years would have passed by the time my savings are gone so I would probably need to be reassessed medically AGAIN. Or I may not even need ESA at this point.
3) fill in just the contribution based part of the form , just to be really sure I do not qualify. I know this would not get me NI credits but I would feel I had tried for the contrib based ESA (it would be really annoying if I did not and then found out I was wrong in my judgement that I was not eligible) So plus of this is I would have a chance to check I am def not eligible, then could forget about ESA ,and then only have PIP and the PIP medical to cope with.

I am right in what I believe my options are, Don t think I am missing anything, am I?

Hi again Have been looking at the ESA1 form to print off and fill in. I spoke with the DWP online assistant people who said that if I sign and date it 31.3.16, (I am asking it to be backdated 3 months, I want the claim to start in the year 2015) that even if it does not reach them until April, the 31.3.16 date will be accepted as the date I made the claim. Is this right in that if I date it 31.3.16 or should they actually receive it in the post by 31.3.16 if I want it backdated 3 months so claim starts 2015

Can you apply for contrib based only over the phone.

or do they make you go through the whole form including the means testing part if you do it over the phone. I just want to apply for the contrib based esa at the moment just in case I am eligible