When I was a young man, there was a benefit called Housewives’-Non-Contributory-Invalidity-Pension.
It was for women whose health difficulties or disabilities meant that they could no longer perform their domestic duties.
It might sound archaic, quaint and somewhat sexist; but it had a good point.
HNCIP allowed non-working-married-women an independent-income, in their own-right, if they became ill or disabled.
Regardless of their husband’s income.
Later, HNCIP mutated into Severe Disablement Allowance.
This was for people who has an 80% disablement, or for people whose illness or disability began when they were young.
Once again, there was no need for a national-insurance record, so housewives could claim, and so could people with childhood-onward disabilities.
A few years later, SDA morphed into Incapacity Benefit, which later became contributory-Employment and Support Allowance.
But the same thing applied.
You could get them, even without a national-insurance record, if your illness or disability began when you were young.
Then, on 1 May 2012 the incapacity-in-youth rule was scrapped.
Why am I going on about this?
Today, Tracy got in touch to ask about her client, Roger’s, benefits situation.
Roger is getting new-style-contributory-ESA along with his Universal Credit.
But he has a learning disability and has never worked.
So, how could he be getting contributory-ESA?
Well, here’s the answer:
He got the new-style-contributory-ESA when he was migrated from old-style-ESA last year …
… and he got the old-style-contributory-ESA when he was migrated from incapacity-benefit …
… … and he got the incapacity benefit when he was migrated from severe-disablement-allowance …
… … … and he got the severe-disablement-allowance back in 1991, when he left school at the age of 18.
And that’s how-come you will meet people who have never worked, who get contributory-ESA.
Their illness or disability began before they were aged 25 and they claimed before 1 May 2012.