Severe disabilty premium

gaz907 · 17 January 2012 at 12:28PM

Need some advice please. I was awarded DLA, high level care, low level mobility in december. At the same time I was being transferred to esa contributions based from incapacity benefit contrbutions based,which I've just been put in the wrag but appealing. Once I got my DLA I was told to apply for severe disability premium which I think is about 55.00 a week, which I did in December. The 1st 2 forms were lost in the post, the third they received yesterday. I received a phone call today stating that I am not entitled to the premium as I'm on contributions based esa. I explained that in order to qualify I had to be in receipt of the middle or high rate care component of DLA and live alone with no one claiming carers allowance for me. Can someone please tell me what I should do or what the rules are, I am finding this very difficult to understand and I'm having great difficulty in having any conversations or contact with the DWP. Thanks.

welshgirl20_2 · 17 January 2012 at 1:20PM

You can only get the disability premium if you are on income related esa NOT the contribution ESA

gaz907 · 17 January 2012 at 1:33PM

Thanks for the reply but I thought it made no difference if you were getting the high or middle rate care component of DLA, this automatically passported you to the severe disability premium ? I have seen that CAB had a case where a client was wrongly told he wasn't entitled to SDP. Its the fact I receive the high level care component of DLA that makes the difference, not income or contributions based ESA.

creditcardhelp11 · 17 January 2012 at 3:22PM

If you are entitled to Income Related ESA then you can get two disability premiums:

1. The severe disability premium (SDP) if you receive Middle or Higher Rate DLA Care and are classed as living alone and
2. The enhanced disability premium (EDP) if you receive the Higher Rate DLA Care.

So if you receive the higher rate care component of DLA you would get the SDP and EDP added to your ESA-I applicable amount from the beginning of the claim. However, the premiums are for ESA-I so if your income or savings are too high and you only are entitled to ESA-C you will not get these premiums.

One month to appeal any ESA deicison you are not happy with - use form GL24. In order to determine if you should be entitled to ESA-I I would need to know your total income (excluding ESA so, private pensions etc) and savings above £6000 and if you have any other property. However, this is not the place to submit that info so I suggest going to the CAB.

gaz907 · 17 January 2012 at 3:39PM

Thank you for your reply but there seems conflicting advice, I am being helped by DIAL house in Chester, they say I am entitled to SDP because I receive high rate care component of DLA, it makes no difference if I'm claiming contributions based or income related ESA. I quote a case here that CAB took over,

Case Studies A client of Craigavon CAB was awarded DLA and became entitled to a severe disability premium on his ESA claim. He reported this to ESA but was told that he was not entitled as he was receiving contribution-based ESA. This was incorrect advice and if the client had accepted this advice he would have missed out on £53.65 per week.

creditcardhelp11 · 17 January 2012 at 3:48PM

I was an advice/welfare rights advisor for years. I am NOT saying that you cannot claim ESA-Income Related if your are claiming ESA-Contribution based. However, what I am saying is that the premiums are ONLY applied to your applicable amount on ESA-Income Related. That means in order to get the premiums you must satisfy the means-test i.e. be on a low income. For example, if you had £25,000 in savings you would not get any premiums as you would not be entitled to ESA-Income Related as you would exceed the capital limit (£16,000). However, you could still get ESA-C as that is NOT means tested. I said I could not tell an estimated entitlement unless I had all your income facts, this is because the premiums are again Income Related. Your advice worker should have given you a calculation if not I would question their ability.

gaz907 · 17 January 2012 at 3:54PM

Thanks for your help, I also was a welfare rights advisor but many years ago now. I must admit that I find this whole benefits thing very complicated now and it has changed so much in recent years. I will speak to my welfare rights advisor. Thanks for your help.

Notmyrealname · 17 January 2012 at 5:00PM

creditcardhelp11 wrote: »

I was an advice/welfare rights advisor for years.

Unless you currently are then its somewhat irrelevant as the rules keep changing year to year, especially under the current govt.

creditcardhelp11 · 17 January 2012 at 5:03PM

It was in no way meant that I am giving advice. It was to indicate that I can interpret the legislation easier. I still look at the legislation - I do not base what I say now on things I used to say when I was an advice worker.

Muttleythefrog · 17 January 2012 at 6:39PM

I was under the impression it could only be awarded in relation to IR ESA and not contrib based. However I wonder if an underlying entitlement to IR ESA is causing confusions... i.e. some people will get it if they're getting contrib based ESA but do indeed qualify for IR ESA also. Just to cause greater confusion I get contrib and IR ESA.. a bit of both... and therefore evidently do have an underlying entitlement and therefore do get Enhanced Dis Premium... hopefully Severe Dis premium one day too if the get my DLA award right..lol. So I would suspect that it may be worth challenging decision if you could get IR ESA... it seems you meet the other criteria for SDP... and you probably should get EDP because of HRC (you can also get for Support Gp.. although not applicable here) if again you meet criteria for IR ESA.