DWP Say I Will NEVER Get The Money From ESA! In Poverty Forever!

I had the worst news ever today! I will NEVER get the money of ESA! Even though I qualify 100%!

I waited well over 2 years for this and now I got told that I will never get the money from ESA.
Why you may ask?
Because they now are saying that the national insurance credits I have MUST be from working, not from ESA crediting the NI credits, only from working.
This is something no one ever told me and I was told that I would be able to get the money from ESA once I had the 2 full years of NI credits from credits only ESA.

I would appreciate it if you shared my story as not many of us get “credits only ESA” so this isn’t heard about as much as it should be and many don’t have the health to share their story at all, so would appreciate any shares to get the word out.

You might know that I have “credits only ESA” which is what you get put on if you qualify for new style ESA but don’t have enough NI contributions.
This means I did the same assessments, same medical assessment, same application form etc that everyone else does for ESA and I qualified for it.
I just don’t get the money, only the NI credits, which are used mostly for your pension when you retire. This is called “credits only ESA” and not many of us are on this which is why you won’t hear about it often.

I was told I needed 2 full years NI credits to get the money from ESA.
I was told this twice by the DWP and once by a parliament response letter via my MP.

So I waited all these years, knowing I would get my money after a few years.
Those years passed so today I called them.

Today, I called to say “how do I get the money now I have enough national insurance credits” and at first the person didn’t know as there isn’t many of us like this.
She went to ask and came back saying her colleague didn’t know either. She then got a message from a colleague so went back to see what they said.

She returned saying I cannot get the money from ESA EVER as I need the 2 years full of NI credits to be from working! The thing I literally cannot do!
This is disability benefit, so why on earth should that matter?! Especially as I was never told this and in fact I was told my credits WOULD be enough! So why aren’t they enough now?!

If you remember the reason I couldn’t get ESA to start with is because I did work full time, but then instead of quitting work and claiming ESA, I pushed myself and worked part time for years instead which was super difficult for me. I worked instead of claiming ESA and THAT is why I can’t get the money. National insurance credits.

But I was told before I could use the credits from credits only ESA to get the money from ESA once I hit 2 full years, but now they told me that is wrong and that I need 2 full years from working only!
I was never told that before.

I waited years to get my money to be told I can’t ever get it as the credits would need to be from working. The thing I literally cannot do!

No one ever said this before! And how does it even make sense? You have to have worked 2 full years and then immediately claim otherwise you will never be able to claim? That is what they are saying which makes no sense as lots of people work part time before stopping work, due to chronic illness and disability.

They said the reason is “The first contribution condition” which is in law, so no one can change it other than the government.

The DWP also said I could read the specific wording in the law, by reading the legal document. Surely if it is in law then I would have been told this to start with almost 3 years ago?

I was never told that the NI credits needed to be from work! Even when I spoke to my MP who contacted parliament and I got a official parliament reply who told me that I could use the credits I earned from credits only ESA, to get the money from ESA after the 2 years are up. But now I am being told that is wrong and I will never be able to claim the money of ESA as the credits must be from working!

I was told that after I earned 2 full years NI from credits only ESA that I would get the money, but now I am being told I will never get it unless I had 2 full years of working NI credits!

How does this make sense??

I have worked in the past, but I can’t anymore, and most of my work was part time due to health, not enough to pay national insurance to start with!

So unless I would work a full time job for 2 years which is impossible for me, then I can’t get ESA. How does that make sense??

I live on PIP alone which is well under £400 a month and that is all I can get!

I can’t get UC due to living situation and can’t get the money from ESA now due to this ridiculous law, so all I get is PIP forever! Nothing else!

I am so, so upset.
Nothing I can do about it.

I have written back to my MP and will update this or make a new blog post when I hear back, but no one can change the law other than government and one person like me won’t be enough to change the law.

Why did no one tell me this before?
Why doesn’t it say that on the ESA website?
Why did other DWP/government staff tell me that I would be able to get the money using these NI credits when that is apparently wrong?

So to clarify,

• I am disabled enough for ESA,
• I filled in the ESA application form and did the same application as everyone else,
• I had the medical assessment and got put in the support group,
• I just got credits only ESA, no money until I got 2 full years NI credits,
• But now the DWP are saying that these credits don’t qualify and the credits must be from working only, which is the opposite of what they told me twice in the past and opposite of what parliament told me when they replied via my MP!

This is the section in the ESA U1 document (which is the one she said it was in) for “The first contribution condition”, which is the section she said it relevant to this.
(Remember this is a law, so these documents are what they use)

This part kind of says that if you have the “severe disability element” you don’t need to have worked. I was in the support group so surely this is what I am on?

3.2 had been engaged in qualifying remunerative work for a period of more than 2 years immediately before the first day of LCW and was entitled to the disability element, or the severe disability element, of WTC throughout that period.

And the Government’s ESA page doesn’t say you have to have worked, only that you have 2 full years NI credits?

Please can you share my story?
I struggle to post due to health and I don’t get much engagement on X since Elon took over. I would really like to get my story out.