Incapacity Benefit - after self-employment

sandralovescats

Due to illness I have had to be signed off self-employment having worked for nearly 24 years without a break.

The Job Centre treats the self-employed like second-class citizens.

First of all I completed the forms online, then I had the telephone interview, then they sent the printed forms to me to sign and to take to the Job Centre. They wanted fully up-to-date statement of accounts before processing the claim for Incapacity Benefit.

I have been signed off since 13th October.

Now they don't know when they are going to pay me any money!

What would have happened if I had been really sick and in hospital? They wouldn't have got my statement of accounts in the middle of a tax year. They can check from my NI Number that I have paid all my Contributions up to date.

Do all us self-employed people have this problem? If you do it is absolutely ridiculous!

furndire

They do tend to be a bit slow, but get there in the end, so long as you've paid your contributions.

shykins

i have been self employed for 15yrs and have been claiming IB since january.

they did take a few weeks to get it sorted but at no time was i asked for a set of accounts made up for the year .. i did have to chase them up because the NI office had not made a note of me paying my NI so at first i was refused... keep chasing

hope yours gets sorted soon
x

sandralovescats

Thanks!

My contributions are fully up to date.

What am I supposed to live on? Fresh air?

jima1_2

Your claim for Incapacity Benefit (IB) should treated in the same manner as anyone else claiming IB.

However, in recent months all IB claims have now been transferred to the main Job Centre Plus offices, and it can often take up to 6-8 weeks or so to process an IB50 claim pack.

In the meantime, if you have no other income, depending upon your personal circumstances you may be able to claim Income Support, and other income related benefits, like council tax and/or housing benefit.

See the A-Z of benefits on the Dept of Work and Pensions (DWP) website,
at this link : A-Z of Social Security Benefits

Best of luck.

Jim (retired Welfare Rights Specialist)