Contribution based ESA payment rates

During the initial 13 week assessment phase people over the age of 25 will be paid £65.45 per week, people under the age of 25 will receive £51.85 per week.

Employment and Support Allowance page index

Once the assessment phase has been completed you will receive a basic allowance of £65.45 per week plus either a support component of £31.40 per week for those who are placed in the support group or a work related activity component of £25.95 per week for those placed in the work related activity group.

If you are on a low income, you may be able claim income-related ESA as well to increase your allowances. If you meet both the criteria for contribution based and income related Employment and Support Allowance then you will receive whichever is the greater between the ESA (Cont) personal rate and your ESA IR applicable amount

Income-related ESA payment rates.

The amount you will receive for income-related ESA depends on-

Income-related ESA payments are worked out by subtracting your total income (including any tariff income) from your applicable amount.

The applicable amount

The applicable amount is made up of-

Your prescibed amount

The rate of prescribed amount that will be applied to you depends on your age and whether or not you are part of a couple, there are different age criteria as well if you are a lone parent. The other variation relates to whether or not you have completed the assessment phase of an application for ESA.

Prescribed amounts for a couple

The first rate of £102.75 includes couples where one partner is under 18 but would be eligible for either income related ESA or income support if they were single, this rate also applies to couples where one partner is under 18 and is eligible for either income-based jobseeker's allowance or severe hardship payments.

The second and third rates only applies to couples under the age of 18 that meet any of the following criteria-

If the under 18 couple do not meet any of these criteria then the single person's amount will apply ie £51.85 during the assessment phase and £60.50 once the assessment has been completed.

Prescribed amounts for a lone parent

Prescribed amounts for a single person

Premiums

Premiums expressed as weekly amounts are added to the prescibed amounts when working out your applicable amount. There are four different premiums the details of which are set out below.

Severe disability premium.

The severe disability premium rates are-

If you are single, you will be awarded the severe disability premium if-

If you have a partner then you will be awarded severe disability premium if you can show that-

you will still qualify if your partner does not receive the middle or higher rate of DLA care component or Attendance Allowance or Constant Attendance Allowance but is registered blind or severely sight impaired.

Enhanced disability premium

The enhanced disability premium rates are-

The enhanced disability premium is awarded to applicants who have been placed in the support group or are in receipt of the highest rate of the DLA care component. It is only available to people under the age of 60.

DLA isn't paid when you go into hospital for more than four weeks but the enhanced disability premium will continue for the first 52 weeks of a hospital stay.

The enhanced premium can be paid in addition to the severe disability premium.

The pensioner premium

The pensioner premiium is awarded to those applicants (or partners) who have reached the age of 60. The purpose of the pensioner premium is to ensure that, for people over 60, the applicable amount is at least equivalent to the standard rate of pension credit.

The pensioner premium can be awarded in addition to the severe disability premium and the carer premium.

The pension premium rates are-

Carer Premium

The carer premium rate is £30.50per week.

You will be awarded the carer premium if you are receiving Carer's Allowance (CA) or if you are entitled to CA but are not actually receiving it because of the overlapping benefits rule.

You will continue to receive the carer premium for eight weeks after the person you are caring for dies. This also also applies to any other circumstances whereby you stop receiving CA.

Allowable housing costs

Housing costs will only be included for the home in which you normally live.

In order to get some of your housing costs included in your applicable amount then you or your partner must actually be liable for those costs for the home in which you are living.

Housing costs will also be included if you can show that you are having to meet those costs because the person who is liable is not actually paying them.

The amount of housing costs that may be included in your applicable amount will be restricted if it is thought that your current housing costs are excessive (see below).

The amount of allowable housing costs will be reduced if you have adult non-dependants living with you (see below)

You will also be considered to be liable for housing costs if you can show that costs are shared with other members of the household (who are not your close relatives) and at least one member of the household is actually liable.

The following costs may be included in your applicable amount-

Loans for repairs and improvements

The interest on loans taken out for repairs and improvements to your home will be included in the applicable amount, if the money is spent within six months (or longer if this is thought to be reasonable) on any of the following-

A "disabled person" is defined as someone who is-

Ineligible service charges

You will not be able to include any of the following service charges in your applicable amount-

Excessive housing costs

The following factors are used to indicate excessive costs-

If you are considered to have exessive housing costs then this restriction will not be applied until 26 weeks after you first claimed. This can be extended by a further 26 weeks if you can show that you are doing your best to find cheaper accommodation.

Before applying a restriction Decision Makers are required to consider whether-

If your costs are restricted then the amount of loan is restricted to the amount you would need to obtain suitable alternative accommodation.

Deductions for non-dependants who live with you

The DWP will reduce your total housing costs for any non-dependant adult that lives with you.

In this case a non-dependant is any adult (other than your partner) who lives with you on a non-commercial basis.

You are exempt from this reduction if you or your partner are

People who are not classed as non-dependants are-

No deduction will be made for non-dependants who-

Deductions for non-dependants are worked out according to the person's gross weekly income-

a weekly gross income of £382 or more will result in a deduction of £47.75 per week.

a weekly gross income of between £306 and £381.99 will result in a deduction of £43.50 per week.

a weekly gross income of between £231 and £:305.99 will result in a deduction of £38.20 per week.

a weekly gross income of between £178 and £230.99 will result in a deduction of £23.35 per week.

a weekly gross income of between £120 and £177.99 will result in a deduction of £17.00 per week.

a weekly gross income of under £120 will result in a deuction of £7.40 per week.

£7.40 per week is also deducted if you have any non-dependants living with you who are on income support or income-based jobseeker's allowance or are otherwise unemployed.

Housing costs waiting periods

For most ESA (IR) applicants there is a waiting period before housing costs are included in your applicable amount. The length of the waiting period depends on the date when you took out your mortgage or loan

There is no waiting period if-

For other applicants, if your mortgage or loan was taken out before October 2nd 1995 then 50% of your allowable housing costs will be included in your applicable amount 8 weeks after you first become entitled to ESA. 100% of allowable housing costs are included 26 weeks after you first become entitled to ESA.

If your mortgage or loan was taken out on or after October 2nd 1995 then nothing will be included in your applicable amount until 39 weeks after you first become entitled to ESA.

There are some exceptions to the 39 week rule, if you have taken out a mortgage or loan after Oct 2nd 1995, the 8 and 26 week waiting periods will apply if you can show that when you claim ESA-

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