|
Benefits Fact Sheet By Howard Pearce, Benefits Advisor and Pituitary Foundation Volunteer February 2010
What benefits am I entitled to? The table below lists the main benefits, indicates what type of person would be eligible, and comments on aspects of each benefit. However, the rules on benefits are complex, and to find out more information you should ask at a Citizens’ Advice Bureau or local benefits adviser. They would also be able to advise you on which benefits you may be entitled to, and how much you would get each week. Alternatively there are many booklets on benefits available from the Department for Work and Pensions, and plenty of information on the internet on www.dwp.gov.uk and other websites.
Benefit | Who Gets It | Comments | | Income Support | Anyone with little or no income | Means tested | | Jobseeker’s Allowance | Looking for work | Means tested, unless recently lost job | | Incapacity Benefit | Left work due to illness | Need sufficient recent paid work | | Employment & Support Allowance | Unable to work due to illness | Means tested, or recently left work | | Disability Living Allowance (DLA) | Mobility and Care Needs | Age Under 65 | | Attendance Allowance (AA) | Care Needs | Age Over 65 | | Carer’s Allowance | Caring for Disabled Person | Person must get DLA middle/high care or AA | | Housing Benefit | Help to Pay Rent | Means tested | | Council Tax Benefit | Help to Pay Council Tax | Means tested | | Pension Credit over 60 | Pensioners on Low income | Means tested, must be over 60 | | Statutory Sick Pay | Away from Work due to Illness | Not paid for first three days of illness |
Some benefits are means tested. They are paid only to people on low or zero income, and who do not have savings above £16,000. The amount paid is reduced on a sliding scale if there are savings above £6,000. Here savings include money in the bank, cash, ISAs, stocks and shares, premium bonds, Post Office accounts and property other than your home. Generally for couples (married or not married, heterosexual or same sex) the means tested benefits are paid to the couple, so if one partner is working the other may not be eligible. Other benefits are not means tested, and you can claim them even if you have a high income. You may be able to claim several benefits at once. For example, a disabled person living alone could claim Employment and Support Allowance (including help with mortgage interest), Disability Living Allowance and Council Tax Benefit. How to apply Until two or three years ago, most benefits claims involved completing a large application form. Some still do require an application form. Others now take claims over the telephone. Be warned, it could be a long phone call, half an hour or more. This can be expensive if you use a mobile phone. Some benefits can be started by telephone, but at a later stage you will sent a form to be completed. Incapacity Benefit and the new Employment and Support Allowance are like this, starting with a telephone claim and then later sending out a medical questionnaire form. Two benefits that always require an application form are Disability Living Allowance (age under 65) and Attendance Allowance (age 65 plus). You can get an application form from the local Jobcentre Plus or Citizens’ Advice Bureau. Alternatively, it may be worth ringing the Disability Benefits Helpline on 08457 123456, listening to the options and asking for a date stamped form to be sent to you in the post. The advantage of this is that they then give you six weeks to complete and return the form, and if you are awarded the benefit, they begin the payment from the day you requested the form. If you take more than six weeks to return it, then payment would start from the day they receive it. Similarly if you pick up a form yourself, then if you get the benefit, they will pay it from the day they receive it, so it is worthwhile getting it done quickly. The Disability Living Allowance forms have the Crystal Mark seal of approval from the Plain English Campaign. Unfortunately that does not make them simple to complete. Just the size of the form " about 40 pages " puts off many people. The Attendance Allowance forms, for people over 65, are also lengthy. Then there are the questions, which can seem repetitive or difficult to answer, especially for a person whose state of health varies from day to day. I have completed hundreds of these forms over the years, and I know that it will take me at least an hour, often more. If you have not seen one before, it can easily take all weekend. There are three main types of form for Disability Living Allowance. There is a form for children under 16; the parent or guardian is expected to complete this form. There is a form for adults between 16 and 64. Both of these are virtually the same for a first claim and for use when the claim is renewed. The third situation is for if you are already receiving Disability Living Allowance but your health has become worse and you think that you ought to get a higher rate of benefit. Or if your health has improved and you think you may need to go onto a lower rate of benefit. You usually have to ring the help line on 08457 123456 to request these “change of circumstances” forms; you often cannot get them elsewhere. There is definitely an art to completing the Disability Living Allowance and Attendance Allowance forms. This is because the people who assess them have their own rules for deciding whether or not a person is eligible. These benefits are awarded because a person needs care, attention or supervision during the day and/or during the night. About an hour a day for the low rate of the care component of Disability Living Allowance. About four hours a day for the middle rate of DLA care and the low rate of Attendance Allowance. Day and night care to get the high rate of DLA care or Attendance Allowance. However, they are not interested in the help a person may need for housework, gardening, shopping, doing the washing and ironing, and so on. These are the things that many people worry about, but for benefits purposes they are ignored. What they are looking for is help for basic needs, such as getting out of bed, washing and bathing, getting dressed, preparing and cooking a meal and general supervision to prevent accidents or falls. This includes someone giving encouragement or reminders to do these basic tasks. They also ignore some other problems that people are very concerned about, such as pain, depression and panic attacks. However, if the pain, depression or panic attacks cause problems that someone has to deal with, or if there is any danger involved, they are interested. For example, if in your panic you may rush across roads without looking for traffic, or suffer an asthma attack or severe angina, it is dangerous and they accept that you need support. But you need to spell it out in the application form, saying that you rush across roads without looking, and that it is dangerous. Disability Living Allowance has two components, for care and for mobility. You can get one or both components. The high rate for mobility is for people who have great difficulty walking, often in a wheelchair or on crutches. The low rate for mobility is not for people who have some difficulty walking. Instead it is given if you need someone with you when you are out, especially in unfamiliar places. For example, someone partially sighted or with severe anxiety. Can you claim Disability Living Allowance while you are working? Yes Parents can also claim Disability Living Allowance for children under sixteen. It is awarded when the child needs substantially more care and attention than a normal child of the same age. For very young children it is difficult to prove this, because even a normal toddler needs considerable care and attention all day. For this reason it becomes easier to get it for older children, unless the degree of disability is major. If your health is poor and you cannot work For Incapacity Benefit and the new Employment and Support Allowance, you need to complete medical forms as well as the original application form. For people out of work for the first time, the original claim for Employment and Support Allowance can be made by telephone. Then, after a few months, they send you what is effectively a health questionnaire, before asking you to attend a medical. The health questionnaire and the medical are designed to find out if you are capable of working, in any kind of job. The fact that your GP has signed you off work indefinitely, that a consultant tells you that you will never work again, or that you have been assessed as unfit for work for years, is irrelevant. It is the decision at your medical that determines if you are entitled to benefits because you are unable to work. If you have been unable to work for some time, you may be claiming Incapacity Benefit, or maybe getting some other benefit and being credited with National Insurance contributions. Either way, you will need to attend a medical periodically to decide if you are fit for work. They use a points system, and you need to score at least fifteen physical health points, ten mental health points, or a combination of at least six physical health points and at least six mental health points. It may be worthwhile getting a list of the health descriptors and the number of points allocated to each, for example three points if you sometimes have to hold onto something when getting up from a chair. You can get this information from various books or websites on disability and benefits, or from a Benefits Advice Centre or Citizens’ Advice Bureau. For psychological problems " and that includes items such as having to leave work because of stress " they only give you a small space to write everything in, and it would be very difficult to write enough to warrant ten points there. Partly for this reason many people with psychological problems are given fewer points than they should get.
The new Employment and Support Allowance also uses a points system, and you need to score at least 15 points. Essentially, this means having one major problem (15 points), or a combination of moderate problems at nine points each and smaller problems at six points each. Overall, it is more difficult to qualify for Employment and Support Allowance than for Incapacity Benefit. They are tightening up. On the other hand, a wider range of people are eligible to apply for Employment and Support Allowance, and will get more money under the new system than in the old system. If you fail the medical, you can appeal as discussed below. Or you can go onto Jobseeker’s Allowance. Less money than the other out of work benefits, and you have to sign on at the Jobcentre and make an effort to look for work. What happens if they turn you down? When it comes to claiming disability benefits, the claim is often refused. Along with the “no”, the Department of Work and Pensions often sends a standard letter explaining what type of person would qualify for the relevant benefit. It is surprising how often a person is refused, but the description of the type of person who would qualify seems to describe them perfectly. Alternatively, they sometimes send a letter listing all of the things they have decided that the person does not need help with. Even though the claim form said that they did need help with most of them. So why were they turned down? Sometimes it seems that the people at the Department of Work and Pensions simply do not bother to read the forms. I remember one woman who came to me to have her claim form for Attendance Allowance completed. This woman definitely did need someone to support her. She suffered from an illness that meant she could collapse at any time without warning, and would die if she did not get help quickly. To my surprise, the claim was rejected. When she told me, I rang the Disability Benefits Helpline immediately. After listening to the Mozart for a minute or two I spoke to a man at their Call Centre and asked why they turned the woman down.
“Yes, we know she has problems, but she doesn’t need someone with her all the time. After all, she gets some warning before she collapses, so she could telephone someone to come and help her. Of course if she had an illness where she could collapse without warning, she would qualify.”
I checked the form. Had I remembered to write down that the woman had no warning before she collapsed? Yes, I had written it down. Three times. On three separate pages. But whoever read the form had still missed it. I told the man at the Call Centre. He sounded unimpressed.
“Oh, yes it is there after all. We’ll review it then.” They did review it, and this time they had obviously made sure that they read the form properly. Eight weeks later the woman was awarded the top rate of Attendance Allowance, giving her more than seventy pounds a week. A very welcome addition to her pension. In one way that woman was lucky. They reversed their decision and awarded her the benefit after just one telephone call. For other people the process is much longer and more stressful. First I have to help them to complete an Appeal Form. Then, several months later, I may go with them to an Appeal Tribunal. Going to an Appeal Tribunal is more than some people can cope with, and they give up their appeal. But it is worthwhile attending a tribunal. We do not win all of them, but we certainly win more than we lose. For Disability Living Allowance and Attendance Allowance appeals, the panel has three members. There is a lawyer chairing the panel, plus a doctor and an expert on disability. For Incapacity Benefit appeals, they have just the lawyer and the doctor. They take it in turns to ask questions for about half an hour, and then they send us back to the waiting room while they make their decision. The ten minutes or so waiting is often the worst part of the process. Then they call us back in again and say yes or no. If the answer is 'yes', brilliant. If it is 'no', then the first thing we do when we get outside is to telephone the Disability Helpline and ask them to send a new application form. Is it really worth claiming again when they have just turned you down? Definitely. Several times after being turned down by a tribunal we have put in a fresh claim and been awarded the benefit very quickly, just based on the paperwork.
However, in many cases the answer is yes. Indeed, sometimes the lawyer stops the tribunal halfway through and announces that they have heard enough and they are convinced already. Very often when I go to an appeal with someone, they tell me that they don’t really think it is worth going. I then have to persuade them to carry on. One woman was trying to claim disability benefits for a disabled child, and had been turned down. Letters went backwards and forwards for nearly a year before the case was finally heard. On the way there she tried to back out, worried about the stress of it all, convinced that we would lose. But we did not lose. They awarded her everything we had asked for, and the family is now over £100 a week richer. Better still, it was backdated for almost a year and they received about £5,000 in arrears. That was definitely one woman who was glad she had not backed out of the appeal. It is always worth trying again. Even if you have tried before in the past and been turned down. Go and talk to someone at your local Citizens’ Advice Bureau, or a local Benefits Adviser. They will be able to tell you if you have a reasonable chance of qualifying for the benefit. They can help you to fill in the claim forms and, if necessary, help you to appeal. Alternatively they may tell you that you are not likely to qualify for it. If that happens, it may be disappointing, but at least you know where you stand. The moral of this story is to keep trying. If at first you don’t succeed, say a few four-letter words. And then try again, preferably with someone to help you. What happens when it all goes wrong? In theory, whenever someone applies for a benefit, the paperwork is assessed by a decision maker as soon as possible. If they need further information they ask for it, from the person claiming the benefit, or from someone else " for example, the person’s employer, the provider of their occupational pension, their GP or consultant. When all of the necessary information has been obtained, then a decision is made and the person is informed of the decision. If the decision is yes, then the payment should start immediately. Even if it all goes smoothly, it takes time before the money finally arrives in your bank account, post office account or as a cheque or giro. If the benefit you are claiming is your only income, or your main income, then it can be very stressful having to live on nothing for two or three weeks or more before your benefits are sorted out. If you are short of money while you wait for the benefits to be processed, you can get a crisis loan from Jobcentre Plus. Just enough money for basic needs, and it will always be less than the benefit you applied for. You then pay it back, when you finally get your benefits, as they deduct a few pounds a week from your benefit until the loan has been repaid. Sometimes it does not go smoothly. Forms and letters get lost in the post, medical certificates disappear, something changes that makes the original claim invalid and you have to start again. Then the decision maker may decide that your claim is “dormant”, because they do not have some important piece of information. They often do not tell you this, so you think that they are processing your claim when in fact they have closed it. Then months can go by while you wait for the money that does not come. If the worst happens, act immediately. Ring Jobcentre Plus, or go to the Jobcentre Plus office or to the Citizens’ Advice Bureau, or to another organisation that provides help. That will at least get things moving again, but you may still have to wait several more weeks. Get a crisis loan, or a series of crisis loans, to last until the benefit is finally paid. For Families and Carers Extra Child Trust Fund payments for disabled children From April 2010 the government will start to make extra payments into the Child Trust Fund accounts of disabled children. The extra payment will be £100 per year, or £200 per year if a child is on the care component of Disability Living Allowance at the highest rate. Will all disabled children receive these extra payments? No. In order to qualify for an additional payment from the government your child must have been in receipt of Disability Living Allowance (DLA) at some point in the previous year. In addition, only children born on or after 1st September 2002 have Child Trust Fund accounts. My child gets DLA. What steps do I need to take to ensure my child receives these extra payments into their account? The government expects to automatically identify those children who have both DLA and a Child Trust Fund and will then make a payment directly into each child’s account. Parents will receive a letter telling them once a payment has been made. When will my child be able to get the money in their account? A child must normally wait until they reach 18 years of age to access the money in their account. However if your child has a terminal illness and their death could be reasonably expected within six months, you can get early access to buy things that your child needs. Phone the Contact a Family helpline for further information (freephone 0808 808 3555). Carer’s Allowance earnings limit to increase from April Carer’s Allowance is the only state benefit specifically aimed at carers. However in order to get Carer’s Allowance one of the rules is that your earnings must be no more than £95 per week. This earnings limit has been unchanged since October 2007. However from 6th April 2010 the government is to increase this figure to £100 per week. How are my earnings calculated for Carer’s Allowance? In working out your weekly earnings certain deductions can be made from your gross wages. For instance any tax and national insurance you pay is deducted, alongside half of any pension contributions you make. What about if I have to pay someone to look after my children while I am at work? If because of your work you have to pay someone else to care for the person you look after, or to look after your children, you may also be able to deduct these costs from your earnings. However the maximum amount that you can deduct for alternative care costs is 50% of what would otherwise have been your earnings. No deduction is allowed if the person you pay is a close relative. These rules may allow some carers to qualify for Carer’s Allowance even though they are earning slightly more than £100 per week. What are the other Carers Allowance rules? You must be at least 16 to claim and you can only get Carer’s Allowance if the person you look after is in receipt of the care component of Disability Living Allowance at the middle or highest rate or Attendance Allowance (a benefit for elderly people). You cannot claim if you are a student involved in 21 hours or more supervised study. If you are looking after a disabled adult then in certain circumstances an award of Carer’s Allowance could lead to a reduction in that disabled person’s benefits. Parents with disabled children who are working and who want to know if the change in the earnings rule will help them claim Carer’s Allowance should call Contact a Family’s free Helpline on 0808 808 3555. The Savings Gateway - government help to boost your savings Later this year (2010) a new government backed savings scheme called the Savings Gateway is to be introduced. Aimed at people of working age who are on lower incomes, the government will give you 50 pence for each £1 you save into your Savings Gateway account. Am I eligible for a savings gateway account? You will qualify for an account if you getting one of the following benefits or tax credits: Income Support; Incapacity Benefit; Severe Disablement Allowance; Employment and Support Allowance; Job Seekers Allowance; Child Tax Credit (your income must be below £16,040 - this limit may increase after April) or Carers Allowance (you must actually get this, not just have an underlying entitlement).
How do I apply for an account? When the scheme launches later this year, Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC) will write to everyone who is eligible, inviting them to apply for an account and telling them how to go about doing this. Savings Gateway accounts will be offered by a range of banks, building societies and credit unions. You can only open one savings gateway account during the course of your lifetime " so you need to think about when would be the best time for you to do so. How much can I save into my account? You can save whatever you like - up to a maximum of £25 a month. At the end of the two years the government will then add a reward of 50 pence for each £1 you've saved. When will I be able to open an account? At the time of writing no launch date has been announced. However it is unlikely to be before April 2010. More detailed information on the Savings Gateway should be available shortly. Telephone Contact a Family’s Helpline (freephone 0808 808 3555) for an update. To download a pdf copy, please click here:  Benefits Fact Sheet.pdf (92KB)
Visit Directgov for the widest range of online information from the Government - there’s a section for disabled people (directgov/disability) covering financial support, disability rights, employment, independent living and much more. There is also a section for carers (directgov/carers). While every effort is made to ensure that the information on this page is up-to-date, the benefits system is subject to frequent change and you are advised to check this information with the relevant agency. 
Due to the frequent changes and complexity of the benefits system, the staff and volunteers of The Pituitary Foundation are unable to offer advice on benefits or allowances.
The links below lead out of The Pituitary Foundation's website. Each link will open a new window in your browser. To return to our site close the window. BenefitsPublications The Department for Work and Pensions provides a comprehensive resource centre including leaflets and guides to benefits and services.
To access information for people who are unable to work due to illness or disability, go to the Beginner's Guide to Benefits on the Directgov web site. Please note that you must have Adobe Acrobat Reader to view some of these documents. (Get Acrobat Reader.) Leaflets available online Disability & Carers Service - Customer Information (covers Attendance Allowance, Carer's Allowance, Disability Living Allowance)
How to claimFull details of eligibility and how to claim can be found in the relevant leaflet in the Benefits section (above). Claim forms can be obtained from your local Benefits Agency Office. You can claim online on the Directgov web site - click here. Where to get help and adviceTo get more information or leaflets contact your local Benefits Agency Office. Leaflets are also often available from Post Offices. More information can be found online at the Directgov web site. A confidential telephone service is available for people with disabilities and their carers. Telephone the Benefit Enquiry Line (BEL) on 0800 882 200 or textphone 0800 243 355 (Monday to Friday 8.30 am to 6.30 pm, Saturday 9.00 am to 1.00 pm). ©2010 The Pituitary Foundation. This material may not be stored or reproduced in any form or by any means without the permission of the author and The Pituitary Foundation.
Did you find this information useful? This information has come to you through the kind support of our donors, many of them pituitary patients and carers of pituitary patients. If you would like to help to ensure that this service continues to be available, please contribute by clicking on the button:  Your donation will be secure and GiftAid will be assessed for UK taxpayers, increasing your donation by up to 28%. Or send a cheque, payable to The Pituitary Foundation, to: The Pituitary Foundation, PO Box 1944, Bristol, BS99 2UB. Please help us continue to provide crucial information to the pituitary community by donating today. aaa
|
Benefits Information 
