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<p>All Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) claimants receive Class 1 National Insurance
Credits as part of their award. If any claimants believe that an error has been made
in the award of these credits they should contact the Department for Work and Pensions
(DWP).</p><p>ESA was introduced in October 2008. From March 2011, the DWP began reassessing
people on incapacity benefits (for example, Incapacity Benefit (IB) and Severe Disablement
Allowance (SDA) ahead of moving them onto ESA.</p><p>The DWP made an historic error
with the reassessment of IB cases when they were transferred onto ESA. This arose
because the Department converted some IB and SDA claimants to Contributory ESA but
did not consider whether they may also have been entitled to Income-Related ESA. A
Legal Entitlement and Administrative Practices (LEAP) exercise was concluded in June
2021, the exercise reviewed around 600,000 cases and made 118,000 arrears payments,
totalling £613 million pounds. Those claimants who have received arrears payments
would have been entitled to receive National Insurance credits from the date they
were transferred onto contributory ESA. The then Minister for Disabled People, Health
and Work made a statement about the completion of this LEAP to the house on 7th July
2021. This statement can be found <a href="https://questions-statements.parliament.uk/written-statements/detail/2021-07-12/hcws171"
target="_blank">here.</a></p>
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