Ema Eligiabilty

homealone_2

my son will be 18 in march and is attending college. up until now he has now qualified for EMA as my husbands income was too high. we have now seperated and i now live off disabity benefits so wondered if he would now qualify or is it too late to apply?

cw18

you should still be able to apply, though they will only backdate by a certain number of weeks

however they base the claim on last years income unless you can prove a case for 'disability discrimination' if they don't use this years (I'd had a medical for work whilst off sick, and the chap at Occupational Health said in his report I was covered by this. I just told EMA of the existance of the report and they didn't even ask to see it).

Not sure if they'd use this years if you're not covered but have a totally different family set-up since last year


Be warned -- there's still a huge back-log this year. My DS hasn't had his contract back yet, and they received his claim form on 3rd September (sent it recorded, so I know when it arrived). I phoned for the third time to chase it this morning, and all they can still tell me is that it's "in progress" but has been approved !!!!

credit_crunch_victim

yes they really are slow 12 weeks so far for us
we have just this weekend got our letter from them and will hopefully get some of the 8 weeks money they owe us

homealone_2

oh no, never even thought of that how can they judge it be last years earnings when husband no longer with me obviously huge difference in circumstanes

cw18

I'd phone and ask -- but be prepared to keep trying as it's almost impossible to get through (normally takes me half an hour, and I don't listen to the recorded messages.... just press '1' and it moves on to the next thing. It's option 1 to get into EMA, and option 1 for queries on new claims when you don't get a message to say they "can't take your call, please try later")

homealone_2

cw18 wrote: »

I'd phone and ask -- but be prepared to keep trying as it's almost impossible to get through (normally takes me half an hour, and I don't listen to the recorded messages.... just press '1' and it moves on to the next thing. It's option 1 to get into EMA, and option 1 for queries on new claims when you don't get a message to say they "can't take your call, please try later")

thanks i will ring them now and see what they say and will post back on here what they say