Income-related ESA is paid alongside State Pension Credit (WRA 2007 s.1(3)(c), Sch 1 para 6(1)(c)-(d)) #2565

esa_income_eligible screens reported income-related ESA awards on capital and remunerative work, but not on age or State Pension Credit. The Welfare Reform Act 2007 sets both:

s.1(3): The basic conditions are that the claimant— ... (c) has not reached pensionable age, ...

Sch 1 para 6(1): The conditions are that the claimant— ... (c) is not entitled to state pension credit; (d) is not a member of a couple the other member of which is entitled to an income-related allowance, state pension credit, income support or an income-based jobseeker's allowance; ...

On main (9d81a5d), policyengine_uk/variables/gov/dwp/esa_income_eligible.py applies para 6(1)(b) (capital, reg 110), (e) (the claimant's remunerative work) and (f) (the partner's remunerative work), and its documentation lists only those. No condition in it bars a claimant who is entitled to State Pension Credit, or one who has reached pensionable age. The Pension Credit inputs it reaches (among them pension_credit_reported, meets_pension_credit_age_conditions, has_attained_state_pension_credit_qualifying_age and is_mixed_age_couple) all come through the legacy-closure proxy person_legacy_benefits_closed, which decides only whether the award owner's legacy awards have been closed by the move to Universal Credit. So neither para 6(1)(c)-(d) nor WRA 2007 s.1(3)(c) (the claimant "has not reached pensionable age") is applied, and a reported income-related ESA award passes the screen when the claimant, or the other member of the couple, is entitled to State Pension Credit.

In law, a claimant who has reached pensionable age cannot get ESA at all (s.1(3)(c)), and a mixed-age couple is excluded from State Pension Credit (SPCA 2002 s.4(1A)) unless the SI 2019/37 art 4 saving applies to them. So the Pension Credit conditions add something of their own only for a saved mixed-age couple whose younger member reports income-related ESA (and, before the exclusion took effect on 15 May 2019, for any mixed-age couple on Pension Credit). The model applies neither condition, so its overlap is wider. In synthetic cases for 2026, with £5,000 of reported income-related ESA, both awards are paid to a single person aged 70 (esa_income £5,000, pension_credit £12,376), to a couple aged 70 and 68 where the 68-year-old reports it (£5,000 and £18,889), and to a saved mixed-age couple aged 70 and 60 (£5,000 and £18,889). Without the saving, the 70/60 couple gets no Pension Credit and keeps the ESA.

Para 6(1)(g) (not receiving education) is not applied either: nothing on the path reads education.

This comes from reading the code and the legislation, and from the synthetic cases above; it has not been measured on the Enhanced FRS. The review of #2558 noticed it while checking a YAML case there: a claimant aged 70 whose partner aged 60 reports income-related ESA. That case tests the Pension Credit earnings disregard reader, not entitlement.

A fix would add para 6(1)(c)-(d), and probably s.1(3)(c), to the screen, with YAML cases: a saved mixed-age couple whose younger member reports income-related ESA gets no income-related ESA while the older member is entitled to Pension Credit; a claimant over pensionable age who reports it gets none; and controls (the same couple without the saving keeps the award, since it cannot get Pension Credit; contributory ESA is unaffected by para 6(1)(c)-(d), which is Part 2 of Sch 1). s.1(3)(c) applies to contributory ESA too, and esa_contrib is the reported amount with no age test; that could be fixed here or separately. income_support_eligible applies the matching Income Support condition (SSCBA 1992 s.124(1)(g)) through meets_pension_credit_age_conditions and would_claim_pc, because reading the Pension Credit amount there would be circular; the same reading may suit this screen. Whoever picks it up should also check how Pension Credit treats the same couple's ESA, so the two awards are decided in the right order. The open draft #2563 also edits esa_income_eligible, so coordinate with it.

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