Employment and Support Allowance

Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) is the UK welfare benefit designed to give financial support to people having difficulty finding a job because of a long-term illness or disability, and to help them back to work despite their disability.

ESA became available in 2008, replacing three older benefits: Incapacity Benefit; Income Support paid because of an illness or disability; and Severe Disablement Allowance. New Labour introduced ESA and the Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition expanded its scope.

The testing process used to gauge eligibility for ESA, the Work Capability Assessment, has been controversial.

The basic weekly allowance is £73.10 (the basic amount is lower for claimants under 25). This may be enhanced, depending on the level of disability.

* No money is paid for the first week ** only one of these components is payable

In addition, an enhanced disability premium of £15.75 a week may be paid to people receiving the support component of income-related ESA. In some circumstances, an additional severe disability premium of £61.85 a week may be paid.

From April 2017, the work-related activity component is no longer available to new claimants placed in the Work-Related Activity Group of successful claimants (or for reclaims, if more than a certain time has elapsed since the last period of receipt of ESA).

An individual can put in a claim for ESA if they satisfy all of these conditions:

They will not be paid ESA if they are entitled to Statutory Sick Pay (this usually means 'if they have a job', but there are exceptions) and it is not possible to receive ESA at the same time as the other main out-of-work benefits i.e. Jobseekers Allowance - received by 536,000 people - or Income Support, given to 666,000 people, nowadays mainly lone parents. Universal Credit, which is received by more than 400,000 people nationally, can contain a component analogous to ESA.

ESA can be either contributory or income-related. If claimants have paid enough National Insurance they can claim contributory ESA for up to one year if they get the work-related activity component, or indefinitely if they get the support component. Income-related ESA is for people who have not paid enough National Insurance and is subject to a means test and certain other conditions (although the amount paid as contributions-based ESA can also be affected by financial circumstances). Income-related ESA is not time-limited.

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