Description
Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) offers financial support and personalised support to those who are unable to work as a result of a health condition or disability. An individual may be eligible for ESA if they are under State Pension age, not getting Statutory Sick Pay or Maternity Pay, or are not getting Jobseeker’s Allowance.
ESA is one of the benefits that is being replaced by Universal Credit, known as "legacy" benefits. Legacy ESA is made up of two strands, but it is one benefit:
- a contributory (ESA (C)) strand awarded on the basis of National Insurance contributions
- an income-related strand (ESA (IR)) which is means tested and awarded to those with low income.
From 2016 income-related ESA (IR) began to be replaced by Universal Credit (UC) via a gradual roll-out. New claims to ESA (IR) ceased, with minor exceptions, in December 2018, and stopped completely from 27 January 2021.
Those still claiming legacy ESA will continue to do so, unless there is a change of circumstances in their claim which would mean they move to UC.
ESA(C), rebadged New Style ESA, a term introduced in 2013, continues and can be paid on its own or alongside UC as a dual claim. New style ESA uses the same National Insurance eligibility criteria as ECA (C). Within these statistics, New Style ESA claims are classified as contributions based.
Claimants who are assessed as being eligible for ESA and do not meet the contribution conditions can receive 'Credits only'. They do not receive any ESA payment but their National Insurance account is credited for the duration of their claim.
Classification
- Contributions based
- Both income and contributions based
- Income based
- No payments – Credits only
- Unknown
Total number of categories: 5
Quality Statement
Employment and Support Allowance data contain a number of "Credits Only" or Nil payment cases. Nil payment does mean the claimant is receiving no benefit - claimants who are assessed as being incapable of work and do not meet the contribution conditions can receive Credits only. They do not receive any payment but their National Insurance account is credited for the duration of the claim. They are referred to as claimants but are not beneficiaries.
By default, Nil payment cases are left in Mean of weekly award amount calculations. However, they can be omitted from mean calculations by excluding 'No payments – Credits only' from the table.