Hello I am new to the forum & am looking for some advice.
I have been suffering from severe depression & panic attacks, along with Bi polar for 20 years & have not worked now for a few years. My partner & father of my children has the same diagnosis as me plus PTSD. He was placed in the support group for ESA in march this year. It is a joint claim.
The letter states that he is entitled to both contribution based & income related ESA. The letter does not state what part of the award is income related.
I have been very ill this last few months with worry about all the benefits changes & how this will affect us. To combat my depression & panic disorder I thought looking for a PT job may help my recovery. I have seen a job advertised for 20 hours per week locally which I may be able to try. The job is min wage so earnings before deductions would be £112.60.
What I would like to find out is how taking a job like this would affect our joint claim for ESA? I have been on another forum which was very unhelpful & I was judged for not working which made me feel awful. I want to try to get some self respect back & I think taking a job would help. However I do not want us to be in a worse situation than we are in. It is all very confusing & it is not made clear to people what they can & can’t do. We are not lazy, we are genuinely not well & just want to be able to do the best we can for our family.
Any advice would be most appreciated.
Thanks in advance.
