Employment and Support Allowance - how to claim

There are several ways you can claim Employment and Support Allowance. The easiest and quickest is by telephone or textphone.

Claiming by telephone or textphone

You can claim Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) by telephone or textphone. An adviser at the contact centre will go though the application with you and fill in the form. You will not have to fill in any forms yourself.

Lines are open Monday to Friday, 9.00 am to 5.00 pm.

Contact centre numbers:

Telephone 0800 085 6318
Textphone 0800 328 3419

Call charges

Calls to 0800 numbers are generally free depending on your provider.

Textphones

Textphones are for people who find it hard to speak or hear clearly. The ESA textphone number can only receive calls made from another textphone. If you do not have a textphone of your own but need to use one, try your local library or an advice centre, who may have one.

Claiming online

You cannot claim online.

Downloading a claim form

If you would like to fill in the claim form by yourself, you can download it from the Department for Social Development website. You will have to print this form and post it to Employment and Support Allowance.

What to do if your circumstances change

It's important to contact the Employment and Support Allowance if your circumstances change. You can do this by telephone - their number will be on letters they have sent to you and on the page linked to below.

Contact Employment and Support Allowance

For example if:

you do any work, including voluntary work
you start training and get a training allowance
you change your address
you have been in hospital for 52 weeks and part of your benefit is paid for someone else
you go abroad

How to appeal

If you are refused Employment and Support Allowance or if you have questions about your payment, you can ask the office that dealt with your claim to look again at their decision. If you're still unhappy with the outcome, you can appeal.