esa claim turned down cos of phi

An friend of mine has been refused esa, after passing his/her medical because quote "We cannot pay you esa because of your occuptional or Personal pension" letter adds quote "You are not entitled to esa because your income is more than the government says you need to live on"
Here are the facts:
My friend is still employed, he/she has been off work ill for over 12months, and in all that time other than statory sick pay has never recvd any money from the state.
My friends employer holds a Group Income Protection policy with xxxxx ,and this provides for xxxxto pay my friends employer a benefit payment, in the event that one of its insured employees are unable to work due to illness or injury.
In connection with my friends current sick absence xxxx are paying his/her employer a monthly sum, and they in turn pass this on to my friend, as a partial basic salary replacement during his/her sick absence. This is paid to my friends employer through their usual paye system and the payment is received by my friend as continuing salary subject to taxation and ni contributions in the usual way.
(Basically my friend is not the policy holder of the phi his/her employer is and my friend does not receive an occuptional or personal pension.)
My friend has sent all the documentation relating to this to dwp (frequently, 3months ago)as they requested, but has not had a reply from them. Does anyone know the law regarding Employers Group Held Phi.

I can't see any reason why this income wouldn't be taken into account when determining entitlement to ESA(IR).

whats ir?

Income-related.

There are two sorts of ESA. If you have paid enough NI contributions, you get contributions-based ESA, if you haven't, you get income-related ESA. For ESA(IR) your other income and capital are taken into account, whereas for ESA(CB) they're not except for pensions, where part of them is taken into account when calculating the ESA payable. See this www.direct.gov.uk/en/DisabledPeople/Fina...upport/esa/DG_171896

If your friend has not left his job, then it does not seem to me that what he is receiving could be regarded as a pension. However, it would be a question of fact as to whether he was still in employment.

@trampy

Income Related (IR)

Contribution based (cont)

Yes he/she is still employed, and is on sick absence.
He/she hasn't had a reply from dwp in three months about his/her claim, despite faxing the information they requested over to them, and writing letters sent by recorded delivery.
To add insult to injury, he/she's been sent another medical form to be completed by atos and I mean what is the point when he/she doesn't know if he/she's entitled to esa. Completely baffled.