National Insurance Contributions

It has always been my understanding that we pay our NI contributions every month when we are employed so that, should anything happen to you like redundancy, or becomming ill and unable to work we can then reasonably make a claim. From what is currently happening, it appears that you can only claim income based ESA for one year then it’s cut off. Why does no one question why people pay NI for 20, 30, 40 years only to be told to f *** off after claiming for one year? I don’t think the working public have any idea that they are paying into an “insurance” scheme (as such) that if anything happens such as being diagnosed with cancer, MS, Parkinsons, a chronic incurable disease or becomming paralysed through accident etc, that they actually will not be entitled to make a claim for longer than 12 months. Why did I pay NI for 32 years only to find out that now I am in a wheelchair and unable to cut my own food up or hold a pen and sign my name I am entitled to nothing? What is wrong with this country? This just has to be so wrong.

hi my partner has been ill since march this year and we havent had a single penny from the state! the reasons are: the law says you need £110 per week to live on and as your partner earns £200 per week you dont qualify. (my mortgage is £650 per month) you havent paid enough contributions. even though a doctor has said he will never work again, they dont believe he is ill. i would like to know how all these people who have always been on benefits can claim when they have never contributed a single penny! its disgusting that we, who have worked for the majority of our lives are being made to pay for the laziness of people who have never worked. we obviously dont know how to work the system!

bloody hell, i’m hoping to be finished thru ill health, and I am pushing for it, but maybe this isn’t the right decision, but i dont feel able to go back to work, this relapse had been a nightmare, what more do we have to proove, this government is disgusting !!!

hyder wrote:

It has always been my understanding that we pay our NI contributions every month when we are employed so that, should anything happen to you like redundancy, or becomming ill and unable to work we can then reasonably make a claim. From what is currently happening, it appears that you can only claim income based ESA for one year then it’s cut off. Why does no one question why people pay NI for 20, 30, 40 years only to be told to f *** off after claiming for one year? I don’t think the working public have any idea that they are paying into an “insurance” scheme (as such) that if anything happens such as being diagnosed with cancer, MS, Parkinsons, a chronic incurable disease or becomming paralysed through accident etc, that they actually will not be entitled to make a claim for longer than 12 months. Why did I pay NI for 32 years only to find out that now I am in a wheelchair and unable to cut my own food up or hold a pen and sign my name I am entitled to nothing? What is wrong with this country? This just has to be so wrong.

If you are put in the support group you will continue to get ESA as long as you need it,it only apples if they put you in the work related group,thats when you can only claim for a year,its so confusing, i get all my info from the benefits and works website.

As Jaki has said contribution based ESA is indefinite if you are in the support group. Presumably that will protect the most disabled (I say presumably because we have all read about the problems connected with getting into the support group) Contribution based ESA is becoming time limited just like JSA (6 months in that case) I 100% agree with what everyone has said about decades of NI contributions counting for nothing. In the past IB was a sort of “rolling program” - being on IB paid your NI contribution and kept you eligible. We have seen benefit entitlement for the sick and disabled slowly eroded over the past few years but that erosion has turned into a landslide. I’m not surprised people are angry and disillusioned. Jane

All I seem to post on here are replys about ESA. I recieved my letter from the DWP this morning telling me that my ESA will stop next year because I am in the work related group and contribution based. I went for a medical in may 2010 I appealed and went to tribunal in june 2011 and got placed in the support group…problem solved…NO I had been reassessed in feb 2011 (without a medical) while waiting to go to tribunal and placed in the work related group again…so what was the point of all the worry to be awarded £194 back pay then lose the benefit again??? I am PPMS so I do not particulary have good days and the is no way I have got better since my last medical. I have appealed again…all be it late but I was told it was ok, so now waiting to see if they will change there mind or it will be another waste of taxpayers money to go to tribunal again jax

I gave up my job after 30 years and was told by the dwp to make a claim for the then Incapacity Benefit. To cut a long story short it was granted, but because I have an occupational pension I didn’t get any money but do get NI credits. I appreciate ESA is not IB, but check with the DWP.

Wendels wrote:

As Jaki has said contribution based ESA is indefinite if you are in the support group. Presumably that will protect the most disabled (I say presumably because we have all read about the problems connected with getting into the support group) Contribution based ESA is becoming time limited just like JSA (6 months in that case) I 100% agree with what everyone has said about decades of NI contributions counting for nothing. In the past IB was a sort of “rolling program” - being on IB paid your NI contribution and kept you eligible. We have seen benefit entitlement for the sick and disabled slowly eroded over the past few years but that erosion has turned into a landslide. I’m not surprised people are angry and disillusioned. Jane

LIke indefinite DLA, it is subject to reviews, in my case after 11 months, so pease don’t assume that if you on contribution based ESA and in the support group that it is indefinite.

It would just be nice to get into the support group and stay in it for a period that I knew about. I dont begrudge the people that are in it, but it angers me that they can consider I am fit for some sort of work in the future when I cannot do much for myself.I would love to get out and socialise again, go on holiday or perhaps just visit my teenage children…but I cannot. I would like to know what the call the most disabled??? I have not cooked a meal for two years have not travelled further than ten miles in this time also and that was to go to my waste of time tribunal. Cannot do any sort of housework or get out of the house on my own…then someone else has to put my shoes and socks on for me. I will have to get my MP involved if they do not change the discision this time