ESA payment

[adriville10]

Does any one know why people on ESA haven't got any help from the government, while people on UC got £20 a week extra. Hope your all as well as you can be. Maz

[hen-house]

Hi Maz, we had this question or should i say argument a few weeks back on here, from what i got from it ESA seems to be paid at a much higher rate than UC - when we started on UC we was given 46p to live on for 4 of us per week now its about £46 per week for 4 of us - good luck with this one, let the battle begin! xx

[adriville10 in reply to hen-house]

Thank you for your reply. I shall look into this further. UC is a total mess!

[releasethemagic]

You will find details of Universal Credit amounts here moneyadviceservice.org.uk/e...

Over 25s get £409.89 and couples £594.04 a month as a standard allowance that is means tested against income. There are various extras. £341.92 is added if you meet what used to be called the ‘Support Group’ requirements. The legacy benefits include Income Related ESA.

Contribution based ESA is separate from this as it is not means tested, other than against pension income received below State Pension age.

The Government is helping those who have least by raising UC standard allowances by £20. If it did the same for those on Contribution based ESA, a lot of better off people would also get the money who are not eligible for means tested benefits.

[adriville10 in reply to releasethemagic]

Thank you for you reply

[hen-house in reply to releasethemagic]

thank you for explaining that in easy to understand terms, i applied for the support group element months ago, but due to Covid-p19 i keep being told its all on hold - i hope they intend to backdate it, as i will be on my 3rd 3 month sick cert from the GP in a few weeks!

[worried4me5 in reply to releasethemagic]

Hi,

What does the legacy benefits for income related ESA mean, as I have only had a £1.24 increase per week, so I'm getting less than someone on UC?

Thanks

[releasethemagic in reply to worried4me5]

Income Related ESA is a legacy benefit. No-one new to benefits can claim it. They have to claim Universal Credit instead. You should see a benefits adviser at a Citizens Advice Bureau. They can compare what you get now overall, with what you would get on Universal Credit if you claimed that instead. It is not always higher - often for disabled people it can be less if they are getting legacy benefit supplements. It depends what you get now across all benefits and tax credits.

[worried4me5 in reply to releasethemagic]

Thanks for that. Will check that out further.