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Who can get Employment and Support Allowance

You may be able to claim Employment and Support Allowance if any of the following apply to you:

• your Statutory Sick Pay has ended, or you cannot get it
• you are self employed or unemployed
• you have been getting Statutory Maternity Pay (SMP) and have not gone back to work for your employer because you have an illness or disability which affects your ability to work
• you are under State Pension age 

You must also either:

• have had an illness or disability which affects your ability to work for at least four days in a row (including weekends and public holidays)
• be unable to work for two or more days out of seven consecutive days
• be getting special medical treatment

If you are aged between 16 and 20 (or under 25 if you were in education or training at least three months immediately before turning 20), you must:

• have been too ill to work because of an illness or disability for at least 28 weeks
• have been too ill to work before you turned 20 (or 25 if you were in education or training at least three months immediately before turning 20)

Entitlement conditions

There are two types of Employment and Support Allowance:

• contribution-based
• income-related

Contribution-based Employment and Support Allowance

You may be entitled to claim contribution-based Employment and Support Allowance if you have paid enough National Insurance Contributions.

Income-based Employment and Support Allowance

You may be entitled to claim income-based Employment and Support Allowance if you do not have enough money coming in, or you have not paid enough National Insurance Contributions, and you satisfy the entitlement conditions. This means that you have savings of less than £16,000 and, if you have a partner or civil partner, they work for less than 24 hours a week on average.

If you have been living or working abroad

Living or working abroad can affect your Employment and Support Allowance claim. You may be able to claim if you have either:

• paid enough UK National Insurance Contributions in the past (and the equivalent in certain other countries)
• worked abroad for an employer based in the UK and paid National Insurance Contributions for the first 52 weeks of that employment

Incapacity Benefit

If you have received Incapacity Benefit during the two years before 27th October 2008, you might get that again instead of Employment and Support Allowance. Jobcentre Plus will consider this when you make your claim.

• Incapacity Benefit - introduction