Income Support/Incapacity Benefit help

laurieabc

A friend of mine was up until last friday living with his girlfriend, the girlfriend was claiming Income support for the pair of them with a sickness premium as they are both unable to work, she has been claiming for the both of them for about 3 months prior to this my friend was claiming Income support with a premium for himself because he was unable to work he had a medical which said he was unfit for work.

On friday they split up so the girlfriend phoned the DWP and said she no longer wishes to claim for him and he is moving out which he has! When he telephoned Income Support to sort out his benefit he was told because she claimed for him his claim had been dormant for 4 weeks and he would have to go on Jobseekers and start a new claim again, can anyone tell me if this is right as it seems strange that he had a medical etc and they said he was unfit for work a couple of months ago and now he has to make a new claim for Jobseekers - the only difference between now and then is he has changed circumstances and is no longer with her. He was due to receive his money this Thursday which he is paid fortnightly ( if he had still been with her)

leemack

In theory he should be able to reclaim income support if he's recently had a medical under old incapacity benefit rules - hopefully they won't ask him to claim ESA.

If he phones incapacity benefit then they should be able to tell him if they are paying his NI conts on the basis of incapacity and for how long, they should also be able to advise on an whether an IS or ESA claim is appropriate. Then he needs to phone the claims line and make a claim for IS or ESA.

laurieabc

Thanks for reply, he went down to the DWP office today and was told over the phone that under certain circumstances he may be able to claim via a rapid reclaim so hopefully this is what they will do for him - he has resubmitted new forms also so its a case of waiting to see what their decision is.