esa contribution condition

Hi,

Can I ask about the following ESA contribution condition:-

there are situations where the first contribution condition can be relaxed for certain groups of ESA claimants meaning that these specific groups can use National Insurance contributions paid in any tax year to satisfy the first contribution condition. This could apply to you if: you were entitled to Carer's Allowance in the last complete tax year immediately before the benefit year in which your Limited Capability for Work began

Does this mean you would have had to have claimed carer's allowance for the full 52 weeks of that year? Or if you'd claimed only 26 weeks would that be enough?

thanks

Thank you Gordon.

So does that mean that you could use any year, say 2010 or 2015, for the 26 weeks employment needed?
Or have I got this wrong too.

Sorry to keep asking you so many questions about ESA. It is just that I am so very upset about my particular situation of not being entitled to any ESA payments, even though I worked for over 34 years.

So thank you again for answering all my questions

Thank you Gordon, that is good to know.

Can I ask you another question please:-

If I have a full year of ni credits from my "ns esa credits only claim " -

1) are these credits class 1 or class 3?

2) if i applied for cb new style esa in the future, would this 1 x full year of ni credits count for the 2nd contribution condition as one of the years, or not?

"2nd contribution condition - in both of the last two complete tax years, you must have paid or been credited with, Class 1 or 2 contributions to the value of 50 times the lower earnings limit."

Thank you.