Incapacity benefit

wendfrombev

Good evening
Hope someone can shed some light on my situation, sorry for waffling.

I have been in hospital for 5 months and my ssp ran out last week after 28 weeks.
I informed working tax credits and now they have cancelled my payments as they have an end date for my employment.
I am still employed and receiving half pay from my employer I don't understand how this is so.
I have applied for employment and support allowance as my doctor has signed me off for another month as she says I am no way up to working.

Does this mean that I will have to live on my benefit and half pay from my employer, sorry I dont know how much this would be, I have a mortgage to pay and a daughter of 15 who cares for me whilst I am back at home.

I do wish I could go back to work as this is lots of hassle for me to sort out.
Lots of paperwork etc filling in forms.
I know they are clamping down on the fraudsters but I have never claimed benefit before and find this all quite stressful.
I am due to ring them up on monday as they are closed for the weekend, but it would be great to hear from anyone who can shed some light.

Many thanks

Conor_3

You have to be working a minimum of 16hrs a week to qualify for WTC. You told them you'd ended your employment so they calculated it based on that. But you haven't ended employment have you? You've stopped working but you're still employed and signed on sick. You can't apply for ESA if you're still employed.

You need to phone up Tax Credits and tell them you made a mistake, that you're still employed but have been on sick for 5 months, not unemployed claiming sick.

healy

Yes this is correct, you can claim ESA whilst you are on half pay now that the SSP has stopped.

healy

Conor wrote: »

You have to be working a minimum of 16hrs a week to qualify for WTC. You told them you'd ended your employment so they calculated it based on that. But you haven't ended employment have you? You've stopped working but you're still employed and signed on sick. You can't apply for ESA if you're still employed.

You need to phone up Tax Credits and tell them you made a mistake, that you're still employed but have been on sick for 5 months, not unemployed claiming sick.

In this situation the OP can claim ESA as his SSP has stopped and he is now on half pay.

cw18

We still got CTC (and WTC) while DH and I were both on IB for 4 months last year. It was the first time we'd received WTC so I phoned to check this was right, and they assured me it was. My job was still open on a 35 hour/week contract, so they took all my income for the year (4 months on IB, 6 months on half pay and 2 months on full pay), but treated it all as 'salary' as I had an employment contract in place and a job to return to.

dmg24

cw18 wrote: »

We still got CTC (and WTC) while DH and I were both on IB for 4 months last year. It was the first time we'd received WTC so I phoned to check this was right, and they assured me it was. My job was still open on a 35 hour/week contract, so they took all my income for the year (4 months on IB, 6 months on half pay and 2 months on full pay), but treated it all as 'salary' as I had an employment contract in place and a job to return to.

This is either misleading or incorrect. If you were claiming IB because you were not eligible for SSP, then you are still entitled to WTC. If you were claiming IB once your SSP ran out, then you should not have received the WTC, and may be asked to overpay the amount.

More information here.

wendfrombev

dmg24 wrote: »

This is either misleading or incorrect. If you were claiming IB because you were not eligible for SSP, then you are still entitled to WTC. If you were claiming IB once your SSP ran out, then you should not have received the WTC, and may be asked to overpay the amount.

More information here.

Thanks for the help, Ive just read the information and it looks like I am entitled to WTC for another month, which is okay because I do intend to go back to work in the new year and I do have annual leave to take.

I will ring WTC tomorrow to double check.
Again thanks for the help, it was on my mind and I just needed some assurance.

Cheers