income support?

Vaila

hello at the moment i receive dla middle rate and am unemplyed due to the reasons i recieve that benefit. i am 18 years old and am wondering if i would qualify for it , any advice thanks

Sam____2

arran_m wrote: »

hello at the moment i receive dla middle rate and am unemplyed due to the reasons i recieve that benefit. i am 18 years old and am wondering if i would qualify for it , any advice thanks

Arran, your post is a tad confusing to understand (well, to me anyway!! lol)
would you qualify for what?

GlasweJen

Income support? You should probably be applying for ESA to be honest, we'd need to know more about your circumstances though.

do you live alone/with a partner/with your parents?
What rate DLA do you get?
do you have a partner?
do you have any kids?
are you still in education?

Indie_Kid

You can only claim income support if you're a single parent or a carer.

Vaila

from the directgov web
If you are aged between 16 and 60, on a low income, not working or working on average less than 16 hours a week you can claim Income Support. Income Support is affected by savings.

im 18 and live at home
i recieve middle rate care and lower rate mobility, i am not in education at the moment but plan to return to college next year

Indie_Kid

Do you meet the other criteria?

dmg24

You have not explained why you are not fit for work - the criteria for DLA is very different to that for ESA.

Vaila

im not too sure what esa is and the criteria, i was just on the website and did an eligabillity check and income support appeared, but id like toget some advice before i call the job centre as i always feel like a fool with things like this

Sam____2

Most people I know on DLA manage to work so being in receipt of it does not mean you cannot work.
Is there no kind work you could manage at all? I'm not trying to be nasty but it isn't up to you to just decide you cant work there are processes to go through before that is decided...

tcr_3

Assuming you've never claimed Incapacity Benefit before, that you're just a single guy with DLA as your only source of income ... you can't claim Income Support.

That's because a new benefit is being phased in called Employment & Support Allowance (ESA), which replaces Incapacity Benefit & Income Support for sick people. So if you think you're so unwell that you can't work right now, you're going to have to apply for ESA instead.

Try here for a further explanation. It tells you about the conditions of entitlement & explains how you go about applying.

http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/DisabledPeople/FinancialSupport/esa/index.htm

You can work, though, and still get your DLA ... so if you're capable of doing some work you could apply for Jobseeker's Allowance instead of ESA and get help from the disability advisers at the Job Centre.