Esa Claim

[jakeydoodles]

I have received a letter saying my contribution ESA ends 13/12/12 but I can apply for income based ESA. I live with a woman who was my partner but we split in 2003. I have since lived at 4 different addresses since then, all temporary shared accomodation. I was on the verge of being homeless when she very kindly gave me a room which I rent from her via the rent a room scheme. We have separate rooms, buy our own food and are financially independent. She made it clear no chance of ever getting back together.

So can I legally claim ESA? last thing I want is to break the law.

[dotty.]

income based or contribution based are both affected by other earners who are considered a partner/spouse and so you've already been claiming ESA in your own right, why would the new claim be any different? If you received it before when you were the lodger then you can change to income based and carry on claiming,

[Yorky Lass]

Contribution based ESA is based on your contributions alone and it doesn't matter at all what a partner may earn. Income based is totally different and depends if they consider your landlady to be a partner. If you buy you own food, don't eat together, go shopping together, watch TV together or any thing else that you would do as a partner I can't see that you will have a problem. It may be that they do a home visit.