Income support claim help please

stef240377

I wrote a thread several weeks back regarding IS not listening to information we gave in a claim made after my OH had been of work sick for over a year.

At the time the benefits enquiry line told us we were eligible to claim as of he last employed date and would hear a response in the near future. The reply came back saying it had been refused with no explanation so we rang up to find out why to be told they could not go into detail over the phone but if we found it to be unjust to appeal. The appeal letter went into the post pronto and a letter of acknowledgement was sent out. This letter was dated 4th August and we heard no more.

OH has just rung up and they said that they have decided they wont be paying anything for the period of 23rd july 2008 until today as OH's final wage was to last us until tomorrow. Here in lies the problem, the final wage was re-calculated over a monthly basis when SSP ceased so that final wage was received in final month of employment rather than leaving any outstanding money supposedly making it easier to claim any out standing benefits, the final sum paid was £280. This has been explained over the phone to IS and they say two different things, firstly they have on their system a payment from employer was due 23rd August and secondly they wont enter into further conversation just to reclaim tomorrow. So i need to find out what to do, according to the entitledto website we have been living on a deficit of roughly £45 a week for 6 weeks. IS say this cant be reclaimed. Employer is adamant final wage was paid 30th July and nothing is pending or outstanding, where do i turn next?

zappster1966

Well, you'll have to put them straight on the 23rd August non payment. If you didnt receive anything they've got nothing to take into account, plain & simple.

Sounds like they're attributing the final payment of SSP to the month of August, e.g. if you received 30 days SSP on 30/07/08 they'll take it into account in their calculations for 30 days from that date ... and if you have another benefit or income in addition to the SSP that might just be enough to deny you Income Support for August.

They do have a responsibility to clearly explain their decision to you, after all how are you supposed to present your appeal to a tribunal if you don't know how they came to their decision ? Just saying "we can't go into too much detail over the phone" and "claim tomorrow" strikes me that's it coming from a member of staff who doesn't understand the decision themselves. Give them a ring tmorro for an explanation, stay calm, if you don't get any satisfaction ask for a supervisor. They might be able to take some time with you & explain things better.

zappster1966

^ that decision does sound odd. Make sure your OH has got an IB claim in too^

stef240377

We already have IB and DLA in place. IS after a long winded phone call said we were receiving over the limit for a couple with OH IB and wouldnt get any IS. I rang IB to see what rate OH was in receipt of and found out he has now been bumped up to long term higher rate with an age premium added. The wonderful lady then went on to say IS should be paid with a severe disability premium added and also a family element to cover a disabled person in the household now meaning another £140 should be added to what we are receiving. She has also sent out in todays post another claim form for IB where in some capacity i get added and is back dated for 3 months therefore covering any deficit in the short term. The appeal for the first claim of IS will take approx 3 months to get seen to due to a huge back log.

I explained very clearly and patiently to IS about the final wage being paid for period 1st July - 23rd July and was told it is atributed for August even after explaining that would mean no money for a 4 week period either way in which you look at it to be told tough its how the system works. Good job i can budget and made sure we didnt go short and all 3 kids had their high school uniform purchased in advance other wise i would have been in serious trouble by now.

Thank you for taking the time out to reply.

cw18

With regards to the final pay slip being "attributed to August", I can only assume they're badly wording what I was told in simple terms.

I dropped to half pay (company sick rate for months 6-12) in April of last year, with all company sick pay ending mid-October. So my payslip at the end of October was half a month at half rate -- meaning it was really one equivalent to one weeks pay. But I was told this is seen as income to last until what would be the next pay date if I were still receiving a salary (hence end of November) and I couldn't put in a claim for IS until then. I could actually see the logic to this, as if I weren't off work then the payment at the end of October is what we live off until the end of November.

So his final payslip will been seen as the income to support you for his next 'pay period', even though you know he's not getting another.

And to rub salt into the wound, having used Octobers money in November, the benefits we did then get (not a lot with 2 lots of IB coming into the house, but it helped) stopped immediately I returned to work in the first half of February even though I wasn't going to be paid by work until the end of that month.

Really annoys me that they can do this at both ends of a claim !!!!!

Not sure about the family element, but due to my hubby getting the highest rate for both DLA elements (not sure which element at which level triggers them) we had a 'sick or disabled' premium of £36.85/week plus a 'disability guarantee' element which gave us another £18.15 (so we were entitled to an extra £55/week IS than we would have got were he not in receipt of DLA.