Esa calculation help please

[weststreet]

Hello

 

I wonder if anyone can help with a calculation please ? My mother is entitled to receive esa. She was medically retired from work on 31/03/10 and receives an early retirement pension of £ 9441.00 p.a. from 01/04/10. Basically this question is whether it's worth her claiming esa? She went via the CAB to a benefits advisor - they told her the first £85 p.w. is disregarded, after that a % is deducted from the esa benefit. The advisor was going to work out the numbers for her but has been off sick, nobody else there can help. She's rung various government helpline numbers but they say make the claim and see. Atm she's awaiting an operation date (cancer) and tbh doesn't want to make a claim/do paperwork/have appointments/assessments if it's all a waste of time ie if the pension means she'd get sod all. For that reason she hasn't even made a claim (was waiting for sick advisor to get back to her).

 

If anyone here could actually do the 'sums' - esa claim with £9441.00 p.a. pension, we would both be very grateful.

 

Many Thanks

[loan_ranger]

Hi Westreet,

here's a couple of on-line benefits calculators you might want to try (and compare the results). Having not tried them myself, I don't know if they're any good.

Benefits adviser service : Directgov - Do it online

and

Benefits Search

 

Best regards and good luck,

Paul.

[weststreet]

Thanks Paul

 

It says £ 17.17 p.w. I'll let her know - up to mum whether the aggro of claiming is worth it.

[loan_ranger]

My pleasure, glad to have been of some help.

Paul.

[weststreet]

Thanks Paul

 

It says £ 17.17 p.w. I'll let her know - up to mum whether the aggro of claiming is worth it.

 

Actually, thinking about it, that calculator cannot be right.

 

My mum lives with her partner, he earns approx 10K from own company (him & 3 others - mix divs & salary). Mum has a property she rents out - I don't know how 'benefits' deal with this, but tax return for last year and next tax year are a loss (it was refurbished) so per returns was a loss & now rented again will gradually over two years return to a profit situation.

 

To be on the safe side, I put in the calculator :

Mum - £9441 pension

Mum - £20000 property income (even though it's in loss, but actual cash hopefully in 2010/2011)

Partner - £10000

Assets - £100,000

 

I focused on the esa number of £17.17 p.w. but it also said they were entitled to working tax credit - that cannot be right surely ??? So I put income of 40K for a 'couple' (even though I'm not sure what property income number was right ie loss or cash) and it says they should get working tax credit ?

[loan_ranger]

Certainly the CAB adviser was correct about the "anything over £85" regards occupational pensions, they deduct half of the excess from the ESA award, a reduction of £48.27/week by my sums. As for other income from property, I'm out of my depth there except to say that they are likely to deduct another £1 per week per £1000s of assets, Working Tax Credits? I haven't a clue, I thought that you had to be in work to get them, perhaps this depends on her partner's income from work/business.

 

Not waving but drowning,

Paul.

[ErikaPNP]

She may qualify for contributory based ESA (Income is calculated for the purposes of Income Related ESA) However some contributory benefits are not payable if a pension is paid - I'm not sure about ESA though so I've asked an ESA benefit processer to look in here for you.

[weststreet]

Thanks Erica

 

Yes, it's contrib based esa. She gets a pension of £9441. Because the pension affects the esa payable (the reduction) she was trying to work out how much esa she'd be left with. Based on that she can then decide whether it's worth the effort claiming it.