4. Amount of benefit
Employment and support allowance (ESA) is usually payable after seven ‘waiting days’ (there are temporarily no waiting days for some people due to the coronavirus pandemic). You are paid a limited amount of ESA during an initial ‘assessment phase’. In most cases, this lasts 13 weeks. After this, you are then paid more in the ‘main phase’ that follows.
ESA is worked out as follows.
In the assessment phase, you get a basic allowance of contributory ESA. The amount of income-related ESA you get depends on your needs (your ‘applicable amount’) and how much income you have.
In the main phase, if you are in the support group, you get a support component of £39.40 a week. If you are in the work-related activity group and you claimed before 3 April 2017, you get a work-related activity component of £29.70 a week. If you claimed on or after 3 April 2017, no work-related activity component can be added. For income-related ESA, the component is added to your applicable amount and your income is then subtracted from your applicable amount. For contributory ESA, it is added to the basic allowance.