ESA and savings

Hi, thank you for your reply.

My husband receives £146.15 weekly.

I will not receive any more money from my pension. The payment was a Winding Up Lump Sum as my former employer was BHS.

My pension was due to mature in June this year.

I'm guessing you don't claim as a couple? That weekly amount doesn't seem right for Contribution Based if he claims for just himself. If you claimed as a couple the weekly amount for Support group would be £151.40.

Contribution based ESA is £109.65 oer week. If he was claiming an Income related top up then he would be paid an extra £15.90 single person/ £22.85 couples rate.

If he is claiming an Income Related top up then any capital/savings over £6000 would affect his money £1 for every £250 over. Anything £16000 and over would stop the Income related top up completely.

He weekly ESA payment do not make any sense to me. I would advice you to check his ESA award letter to see exactly what is say. If he is recieving an Income related top up on the letter it will say something like...... Any extra money the law says you need to live on...then the amount.

Is the £146.15 per week what it's been reduced to? Please tell me exactly what his weekly money was before the reduced amount and are you claiming as a couple? or is he claiming just for himself?

The award letter states :

Living expenses for you and your partner £114.85

Extra money because your partner is a carer £34.60

Extra money because of the Disability income guarantee £22.60

Extra money because you are in the support group £36.20

Which gives a total income related amount £208.25

DLA Care - not counted

DLA Mobil - not counted

Carers Allowance for your partner £62.10

Total income £62.10

Income related amount £208.25 less total income £62.10

So your income related entitlement is £146.15

These are the amounts we currently get. From April the income related entitlement will reduce to £133.45

Yes, as i thought. You are claiming Income Related and not Contribution based. This means that capital/savings will affect the amount you can claim. The amounts you can have for Income related before your benefits are affect are in my reply above. Seems like you have over the amount allowed so they are reducing your weekly money.

The premiums you're claiming are the disability Income guarantee £22.60 and the Carers premium of £34.60. If you were claiming Contribution based ESA then those premiums would not be paid to you. Only Income related qualifies for ANY premiums.

Any capital/savings in the furture that you have over £6000 must be reported to DWP and any other means tested benefits you claim. Anything over £16000 and your benefits will stop.

Any future pension you recieve will also affect your ESA amount.

In lots of ways you have made things a lot clearer for me.

The only strange thing is his original award letter when he was transferred from Incapacity Benefit in 2012, states his award was contribution based.

The only thing that I was aware had changed, and I keep every DWP letter, was he was moved from WRAG to Support group.

Once again, thank you for your help . Much appreciated

You're welcome. Everyone that was claim IB was on Contribution based. When they were transfered accross some stayed on CB and some changed to Income Related because the premiums were added.

I asked about the money being taken off because of my pension savings and was told he looses the contribution entitlement because we are a married couple.

I am now rather confused. Any ideas on this one.

Savings/capital have no affect on Contribution based benefits. Savings/capital will affect the Income related part of the ESA only! As he transferred from IB he'll still be claiming contribution based and income related. Being a married couple won't change that.

As you assumed at the beginning that he was claiming Contribution based ESA when in fact he was claiming both then it could be that they're taking money off you now for an over payment.

How much money per week are you both claiming for the ESA now?

The amount of ESA we get is £146.15 oer week, the full details are in one of my above replies.

The claim is in his name, claiming as a couple.

Having just looked at your figures above i can't see that they are  stopping any money for any savings that you have.

The only money that they're taking out of the ESA is the Carers Allowance, which is correct because a Carers Premium is added.(£34.60)  Carers Allowance then pay you separately, either weekly, 4 weekly of every 12 weekly. The figures above are slightly wrong in the fact that Carer Allowance is £62.70 and not £62.10 like you have stated there.

It says it will be reduced in April from £146 to £133 but you don't state why it's being reduced.

Other than the reduction in April i don't see what the problem is. You're both claiming exactly what you should be claiming. If your savings/capital were/are over £6000 then your Income related benefits (only) will be reduced by £1 for every £250 over that amount. If you have over £16000 in savings/capital then all of your Income Related benefits would stop and he would just claim the contribution part of ESA which is approx £109 per week.

The reduction in April is because of my pension savings, the only savings we have and under £16,000.

Thank you though for your explanation, you have made things a lot clearer for me.

I understood Incapacity Benefit and Income support but I struggle with all the different parts of ESA.

Once again thank you

Ah yes, that makes sense. You're very welcome. The benefits system is very complicated, glad i could help.