Employment and Support Allowance

Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) was introduced on 27 October 2008 and has replaced Incapacity Benefit, paid because of an illness or disability, for new customers only. It has been designed to help you achieve your full potential and help you to gain independence from benefits.

Find out more about Employment and Support Allowance

Incapacity Benefit

What is Incapacity Benefit?

We pay Incapacity Benefit to people who are too sick or disabled to work.

Can I get Incapacity Benefit?

You may be able to get Incapacity Benefit if you:

• are over 16 and under State Pension age
• have made enough National Insurance contributions, and
• are not able to work.

How much will I get?

You will not get any money for the first 3 days of your claim. These are called 'waiting days'. Then you will get the short-term (lower) rate of Incapacity Benefit for the first 28 weeks of your claim.

After that, you will get short-term (higher) Incapacity Benefit until you have been off work for 52 weeks. Or, if you have been in work and received sick pay for 28 weeks, you could get short-term (higher) straight away.

After you have been off work for 53 weeks, you will get long-term Incapacity Benefit.

What are the benefit rates?

Under State Pension age

Short-term lower rate: £63.75

Short-term higher rate: £75.40

Long-term basic rate: £84.50

Over State Pension age

Short-term lower rate: £81.10

Short-term higher rate: £84.50

Incapacity Age Addition

Lower rate: £8.90

Higher rate: £17.75

What do I need to do next?

Call 0800 055 6688 (8am - 6pm Monday to Friday). A textphone service is available if you have a speech or hearing impairment 0800 023 4888.

Get help with PDFs

You can download Incapacity Benefit forms

To make sure you do not miss out on any benefit due to you, you should contact us to find out if you need to fill in this form. If you download a form you should contact us to establish the date of your claim. Find out how to contact us.

You can download Incapacity Benefit claim forms in a PDF format. These forms do not apply in Northern Ireland. Please choose a form from the options below.

Incapacity Benefit customers aged 25 years and over

Please use either of the following forms:

 If you want to fill in the form on screen (720kb).

We have introduced a special feature that lets you save this form as you fill it in. This feature only works in Adobe Acrobat reader 5.1 and above. This means that you no longer have to complete the form in one session.

• We recommend that you save this file to your computer hard disk, floppy disk or a CD before completing it.
• To save a copy of the file to disk right click with your mouse on the link above and choose the 'Save Target As' option.
• You cannot save the form once you have opened it in an internet browser.
• After you have completed the form on screen, you will have to print and sign it.

 If you want to print out a form to fill in with a pen (299kb)

Incapacity Benefit customers under 25 years of age

Please use either of the following forms:

 If you want to print out a form to fill in with a pen (229kb).

 If you want to fill in the form on screen (1083kb).

We have introduced a special feature that lets you save this form as you fill it in. This feature only works in Adobe Acrobat reader 5.1 and above. This means that you no longer have to complete the form in one session. These forms come with notes that will help you fill them in and tell you where to send them once completed.

Claim Online

You can claim Income Support, Jobseeker's Allowance, Employment and Support Allowance or Incapacity Benefit online