Client who is 51 has been in receipt of Carers Allowance for years. She stopped caring recently and now is sick. Savings too high for means tested benefits.

In the back of my head somewhere I thought CA NI credits gave entitlement to IB/cbESA as well as SRP but the little voice appears to be wrong. Does anyone know differently.

Yes, I believe it can give entitlement to IB/CB ESA ,as I had a client who has never worked and was claiming CA - came off CA recently due to ill- health. Subsequently , made a successful claim for CB ESA - believed to be based on his NI credits from CA only for the past tax years.

Unfortunately, the DWP are wrong. The relaxation of the first contribution condition can only apply to a person who has paid sufficient class 1 or 2 contributions in respect of any one tax year prior to the relevant benefit week, as opposed to any one tax year in the last three tax years before the benefit year in which his incapacity for work began.

In effect it restores the position prior to April 2001 for certain claimants. See Regulation 2B of the Incapacity Benefit Regulations and regulation 8 of the ESA Regulations. Thus a person who has never worked and paid never paid NI contributions cannot benefit from the relaxation and cannot get ICB/CB ESA unless it is an Incapacity in Youth claim.