Former Liberal Democrats pensions minister Sir Steve Webb is trying to raise awareness of ‘new style ESA’.
State pensioners told to apply for ‘new’ DWP benefit or lose pension cash
State pensioners are being told to apply for a ‘NEW’ Department for Work and Pensions ( DWP ) benefit or lose state pension cash. Former Liberal Democrats pensions minister Sir Steve Webb is trying to raise awareness of ‘new style ESA’.
He says it “might offer more hope because it is not based on your income or savings”, adding: “However, it is based on your National Insurance record and if you have not worked and paid NI recently, you might well fail the contribution test.
“On the face of it, you might think that there’s nothing that you can do – you don’t think you’d qualify for ESA/UC because of your income and your NI record isn’t good enough to qualify for new-style ESA.
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“However, there is a solution. As you know, I recommended that you claim ‘new-style’ ESA even though you thought you would not qualify.
“The reason for this is that as long as you satisfy the rules on being unable to work you can still get NI credits even if you don’t get a weekly cash benefit.
“It may seem bizarre that you should apply for a benefit knowing that you won’t get it, but this is what you need to do in order to get the NI credits.”
Sir Steve was replying to a future state pensioner who said: “I am in my mid-50s and had to stop work eight years ago due to a severe illness. I was lucky enough to qualify under my work pension to qualify for early retirement due to permanent disability.
“However my pension is small as I worked part time whilst my children were at school. I do not qualify for any benefits as my pension is just over the limit so I live entirely on my pension which is challenging.
“I have looked at my state pension and I have 32 qualifying years but am still a few years short of the full pension which obviously would help me enormously.
“Therefore I would like to know if there is any way to get credits as I know if you are on benefits due to being too ill to work you can qualify for them, but as far as I can see there isn’t any way for claiming credits if you don’t qualify for benefits yet are unfit to work.”