To know if your ESA is income based or contribution based, you need to check whether you have made any payments towards your National Insurance over the past 2-3 years, if you have, you may be on contribution based ESA, whereas if you have not and are only receiving the ESA based on what your current needs and ability to work are like, you may be receiving Income based ESA. There are no income and savings test for contributory ESA and usually the contributory ESA is reduced by half the amount of any pension or permanent health insurance payment received in excess of £85.