Benefit Help

-MRS_T-

Hello

I am looking for some advice please.

Currenty my dad is quite ill, he has some sort of tumour in his liver and is awaiting a full diagnosis.

He is currently self employed and has not been able to work for about a month now due to him deteriorating.

The business employs 3 people and we are struggling by.

Would he be entitled to any benefits as he is unable to work?

I would appreciate any help.

PippaGirl_2

It would depend on many things. Does he have any savings or own any property apart from his own home?
Does he have any income? How about your Mum?
I would ask for a referral to a member of the local Macmillan team, they get involved with any cancer case not just terminal ones and they know the ins and outs of every benefit going plus would know if your Dad could access other pots of money or continuing health care at any stage.
If he has no income at all and has no or little savings or additional property then ESA might be the first port of call. But I would recommend Macmillan, phone them if necessary.

von

He can claim Employment & Support Allowance.
ESA(Cont) is based on his NI record for the tax years 2009/10 and 2010/11 so he may qualify for that if he has been paying NI throughout.
ESA(Cont) is payable at £71.00 per week.

Depending on his circumstances e.g. houseold income, capital etc he could also claim ESA(Income-Related) at £111.45 per week.

You have said that the business he runs is still trading in his absence so the DWP will need to see his Profit and Loss accounts for the period since he has been unable to work to show what income he has from the business.

PippaGirl_2

I think that contributions based benefits depends on what type of NI contributions have been made and self employed people pay type 2 which isn't necessarily covered by the criteria for the benefits. Not certain, but do check.

-MRS_T-

Thanks all for taking the time to reply. It all sounds very complicated which is what I guessed as he is self employed it opens up a lot of questions.

I think I may just wait until he has been diagnosed and see how it goes from there.

Thanks again

pmlindyloo

PippaGirl wrote: »

I think that contributions based benefits depends on what type of NI contributions have been made and self employed people pay type 2 which isn't necessarily covered by the criteria for the benefits. Not certain, but do check.

The class 2 contribution does cover contribution based ESA.

From Adviceguide:

Which contributions pay for which benefits

Class 1

Class 1 national insurance contributions count towards contribution-based Jobseeker’s Allowance, Incapacity Benefit, contributory Employment and Support Allowance, Bereavement Benefits, State Retirement Pension and Maternity Allowance.
Class 2

Class 2 contributions count towards the same benefits as Class 1, except that Class 2 will not usually count towards contribution-based Jobseeker’s Allowance.
Class 3

Class 3 count towards bereavement benefits and State Pension.
Class 4

Class 4 contributions do not count towards any benefits. However, you still have to pay these if you are self-employed and have profits over a certain level (see under Class 4 contributions).