ESA Complaints • 0844 409 8262 • Phone Number

ESA

Complain to ESA on 0844 409 8262 relating to your dealings with them. Their website also contains information on how to communicate with them and complaints procedures.

ESA (Employment and Support Allowance) provides financial support if you are unable to work, and personalised help so you can work with illness, injury and/or disability if able to.

About

ESA basically helps people with a disability or illness to progress into work. It has replaced the old Incapacity Benefit and the payment of Income Support due to a disability or illness.

There are basically two types of Employment and Support Allowance:

Contribution based - paid when the claimant has built up enough National Insurance contributions. It is a taxable benefit.

Income-related - paid when the claimant has not built up enough National Insurance contributions and does not have enough savings.

Along with financial help, the claimant receives assistance from a trained personal advisor who can help advise on a range of other services designed to help get work.

The ethos of the ESA is that people are often better off in work not just financially but for the benefits of their self esteem and overall well-being. To this end, the ESA works to match people up properly with work they are able to do while making it financially beneficial for them.

Through their support service (the claimant’s advisor and medical personnel) The ESA thoroughly assesses people to ascertain what type of work they would be capable of, and whether the ESA benefit can be awarded or not.

The website details who can make a claim, how to make a claim, and provides an online benefits calculator to check if the claimant is likely to be eligible.

Making a complaint

Call the ESA telephone complaints line on 0844 409 8262. If you are complaining about a benefit award decision, there is a specific complaints procedure to follow which is explained on the website and in a leaflet you can download. The leaflet explains how ESA works, how to claim, how they assess your claim, and what to do if you do not agree with their decision.

Useful information

Website: www.gov.uk/employment-support-allowance

Complaints No: 0844 409 8262