incapacity benifit question

tiannaleigh

I am single , have two children and claim incapacity benifit ,I am really starting to wish i was on income support instead,I have to make rent payments and council tax payments,were my next door neighbour in a similar situation to myself doesnt pay anything to these,and now ive found out that i cannot claim for a comunity care grant for my 3yr old autistic daughter as i would need to be on income support or job seekers allowence.
does anybody know if you can just stop incapacity and just get incomesupport,and roughly how much you get on this benifit
thanks for your time
tiannaleigh

seven-day-weekend

I don't think you can do what you suggesting, but do bear in mind that Income Support is means-tested, whereas IB isn't and you can have other income.

mad_spaniel

You don't say if you've ever claimed Income Support. I will presume you have but were told you were over. And that you don't have significant capital. If you haven't claimed IS then nows perhaps the time to see what the Govt think you need to live on versus what you have coming in.

Do you get DLA middle care for your daughter? If not have you thought about claiming? See CAB for more info. or ring 0800 88 22 00 for a claim form. You have 6 weeks to return the completed form and if eligible, benefit will be paid from the payday following the day you rang up. Also DLA has knock on advantages when dealing with Social Services/ getting statemented at school. Basically you would need to show that you have to give your 3 year old more care throughout the day than an average 3 year old. So you'd have to compare normal developemental progress with a similar aged kiddy and show what you do extra/ that's different. Cajoling, encourageing, playing if its therapeutic all count, so would dealing with tantrums if they're more frequent/ longer lasting than normal. Use your Social worker, presuming you have one, or anyone you deal with at hospital/ nursery to give an expert's view on your daughters condition and care needs. If you get middle rate DLA care, then you can claim Carers Allowance (same phone number applies). Now this sounds daft.....you can claim Carers, but you won't get paid. So why bother? Because you get ICB, you'll be told you can'y get ICA.....but you will have underlying title.... so this would mean that if you reclaim Income Support, you'd have a carers premium added into the calculation, which (was) roughly £27 a week, but its just gone up, so don't know current figures. That extra premium might just make a difference to get you on Income Support, rather than being over. It would also make a benefiicial difference to your rebates. The DLA would be regarded as invisible income and is non taxable. Altho you cannot claim CCGs as you're not on IS, look at the thread on discretionary housing allowance. You might get some extra rebate from your local authority. Again your local CAB should be able to help. Think about all the extra costs involved with your daughter's care.. clothing.. travel... swimming.... therapy..... Best of luck.

skintsaver_2

a good few years ago when i was on benefits i signed myself off incapacity as i was no longer ill, i had to put it in writing the jobcentre and then applied for income support, which i was accepted for. i dont know if you are still allowed to do that now but if you phone the incapacity benefit office and ask if you can still do this they should be able to tell you

tiannaleigh

mad_spaniel wrote: »

You don't say if you've ever claimed Income Support. I will presume you have but were told you were over. And that you don't have significant capital. If you haven't claimed IS then nows perhaps the time to see what the Govt think you need to live on versus what you have coming in.

Do you get DLA middle care for your daughter? If not have you thought about claiming? See CAB for more info. or ring 0800 88 22 00 for a claim form. You have 6 weeks to return the completed form and if eligible, benefit will be paid from the payday following the day you rang up. Also DLA has knock on advantages when dealing with Social Services/ getting statemented at school. Basically you would need to show that you have to give your 3 year old more care throughout the day than an average 3 year old. So you'd have to compare normal developemental progress with a similar aged kiddy and show what you do extra/ that's different. Cajoling, encourageing, playing if its therapeutic all count, so would dealing with tantrums if they're more frequent/ longer lasting than normal. Use your Social worker, presuming you have one, or anyone you deal with at hospital/ nursery to give an expert's view on your daughters condition and care needs. If you get middle rate DLA care, then you can claim Carers Allowance (same phone number applies). Now this sounds daft.....you can claim Carers, but you won't get paid. So why bother? Because you get ICB, you'll be told you can'y get ICA.....but you will have underlying title.... so this would mean that if you reclaim Income Support, you'd have a carers premium added into the calculation, which (was) roughly £27 a week, but its just gone up, so don't know current figures. That extra premium might just make a difference to get you on Income Support, rather than being over. It would also make a benefiicial difference to your rebates. The DLA would be regarded as invisible income and is non taxable. Altho you cannot claim CCGs as you're not on IS, look at the thread on discretionary housing allowance. You might get some extra rebate from your local authority. Again your local CAB should be able to help. Think about all the extra costs involved with your daughter's care.. clothing.. travel... swimming.... therapy..... Best of luck.

Thank you mad_spaniel that helps a lot,your correct,i have claimed IS in the past but then my IB went up slightly and it stopped me getting any IS.
also I have a claim in to try for DLA so dont know what rate If any I will get,but I do have support from doctor and school nursery to say she needs alot more care,the school has just received an education statment for her with support for her full 12 hours p/w as they say she needs a great deal of support both in the class room and at playtime.
I really dont want anything I should not be getting,but at the moment I really needed help to pay for safety equipment I need for her, and was really disapointed to find i couldnt get a social fund loan or grant
The doctor who diagnosed my daughter has asked the social worker to come out and ive tried chasing this up but to date have not seen her.
but at least from reading your post it looks like there may be a way to get on IS,i think ill go cab or somewere when I know outcome of dla apllication
thanks again

mad_spaniel

The way to get things moving is to involve your MP. write a letter to him/ her c/o Houses of Parliament and talk about the difficulties you've had getting a social worker out... Guaranteed.. an MP enquiry at the local Social Services will have them acting double quick.... They'll be falling over themselves to help you... just to appease the MP! ....PS If you have access to Mosby's Medical Encyclopaedia (try your library) there's a useful guide at the back to normal development for a child. Useful to compare your child to the so called norm. To get middle care you need to show care needs throughout the day.. can you explain what you mean by full support for full 12 hours... does this mean " all the tiem she is there" get them to say that in a letter to DSS/ DWP...hope this helps

tiannaleigh

mad_spaniel wrote: »

The way to get things moving is to involve your MP. write a letter to him/ her c/o Houses of Parliament and talk about the difficulties you've had getting a social worker out... Guaranteed.. an MP enquiry at the local Social Services will have them acting double quick.... They'll be falling over themselves to help you... just to appease the MP! ....PS If you have access to Mosby's Medical Encyclopaedia (try your library) there's a useful guide at the back to normal development for a child. Useful to compare your child to the so called norm. To get middle care you need to show care needs throughout the day.. can you explain what you mean by full support for full 12 hours... does this mean " all the tiem she is there" get them to say that in a letter to DSS/ DWP...hope this helps

hi mad_spaniel ,yes she is only in the school nursery class at the moment and she attends 12an half hours per week,the school has just been given support for her for the full time she is there,which is good because before they got the statment,they was paying someone out of there own budgit for four days and I had to attend with her one day.
I am going to write letter to mp today,
thanks so much for your help
tiannaleigh

noma_2

hi i have been getting incapacity benifit for over 5 years now, but recently as i was claiming cares allowance i think it has stopped am not sure, i have never worked as am unable due to ill health,but they never paid me as direct payments,they say they pay it toward my national contributions,as i am not entitled to get cash payments,i know alot of people that have never worked and get same benifit payed in direct payments,could you advice me as some say you can get direct payments if you are a single parent ,dont't understand how it works:think::think::think:

cattie

noma wrote: »

hi i have been getting incapacity benifit for over 5 years now, but recently as i was claiming cares allowance i think it has stopped am not sure, i have never worked as am unable due to ill health,but they never paid me as direct payments,they say they pay it toward my national contributions,as i am not entitled to get cash payments,i know alot of people that have never worked and get same benifit payed in direct payments,could you advice me as some say you can get direct payments if you are a single parent ,dont't understand how it works:think::think::think:

You are always advised to start your own thread, rather than tagging it onto somebody elses, you get a better response that way.

Your post isn't very clear. You mention getting incapacity benefit & then carer's allowance. Who did you claim carer's allowance for? You can only claim carer's allowance for looking after somebody who gets either medium or high rate DLA. You can't claim it for yourself.

Direct payments are something completely different. Direct payments are made to people who have a disability & need to arrange paid carer's to look after them. An assessment is usually done to see if somebody qualifies for direct payments, normally via social services. You have to keep proper records & pay national insurance etc when employing people via direct payments.