I’m wondering if any of you have experience with this, or perhaps advice. I have a multitude of conditions, not just MS, a couple of which (my mental health and asbergers) cause me to avoid looking at my bank accounts as it just causes me massive panic attacks. So I hadn’t done so for around a month, and hadn’t properly looked at them for longer than that - this was until today. Then today I noticed that I have virtually no money left, and when I looked further it seems my ESA hasn’t been paid for the last 2 months. That’s like nearly £900. I literally cannot believe it and I totally don’t know what to think. I have been in a blind panic, unable to do anything about it, all day. I can’t for the life of me think of a reason why it would or should have stopped. I’ve had no letters through - nothing. I should say that I am/was on contribution based ESA which started at the end of March. I had my assessment in July and was then put into the support group. I did think that you stayed in the support group for however long you needed to (indefinately if required) even if you were on contribution based ESA originally. But I haven’t had a year of contribution based ESA anyhow. I don’t understand. Help! Thanks
I agree with Fay, shouldn’t happen. Contribution based ESA plus Support group should be ongoing. Call the Jobcentre or ESA office tomorrow and try not to panic about it.
I must say that I concur with the above, it’s an administrative error. It sounds like contributions based ESA stopped but income based ESA didn’t start when it should have - that’s an admin error.
When you are in the Support Group, Contribution based ESA doesn’t stop. If you also have other needs, a partner, children, etc, then it’s possible that Contribution based ESA is topped up by Income Support. But essentially, if entitled to Contribution based, and in the Support group, it doesn’t stop.
If however, you are in the Work Related Group, then Contribution based ESA is only paid for 6 months, after that if you are on a low income and have less than £16,000 in savings, you can move over to Income Based ESA.
I had no idea that contributions based ESA didn’t doesn’t stop for people in the support group. I’ve looked it up and yes you’re right, it doesn’t stop.