After a accident, unable to work - any benefits?

code-a-holic

Have been looking in to this for my 21 yr old brother....but all so conflicting! I know people here talk sense and know how it works, help appreciated!

On Friday night my brother was hit off a bike by a car. Hit and run too. He Was taken to hospital and had surgery on his face whch is pretty bad and will be for some time and scarred and numb for life.
He worked in a pub, renting in a shared house. The pub are keeping his job open thankfully and given a bit of money to help ease things. But while in hospital someone stole money from his room so he only has what the pub gave him. He's moving back in with mum this week.
But what benefits could he claim to help things. Income support? Staturory sick pay - do the job centre pay that or through work?
At the moment mum is privately renting and claims housing benefit - how much would his claims effect her - she could do without being out of pocket too.
What a mess! Hope the police get the driver!!

seven-day-weekend

Hope your brother recovers soon.

This may help:

http://www.jobcentreplus.gov.uk/JCP/Customers/WorkingAgeBenefits/Dev_007969.xml.html

code-a-holic

Thank you. I went through that site too but somehow never read where to claim SSP!

yully

When my hubbie was off following surgery we went to jobcentre plus and they we're helpful up to a point but in the end we just applied for everything we could find and we got benefits that we were initially told we wouldn't get. Can't remember exact details 'cos it was a while ago but tell him to fill in any form he can lay his hands on.

seven-day-weekend

'Statutory Sick Pay (SSP)
If you were working for an employer and earning enough to be relevant for National Insurance (NI) purposes (this is lower than the amount when you have to start paying NI contributions) find out more about Statutory Sick Pay.
This pay is dealt with by your employer. Cases of dispute are dealt with by your local HM Revenue and Customs office'

suelees1

This must have been awful for your all but you're right to be thinking practical issues. I hope he feels a bit better soon.

Even if he gets ssp from work he still needs to claim his Housing and Council Tax Benefit if he is liable to make payments. He should ask the local authority for a form. If he doesn't get ssp from work then he needs to make claims for Income Support, Incapacity Benefit and HB and CTB through the Jobcentre Plus call centre. It's a newish system called CMS (Customer Management System) and is one stop info gathering for DWP and LA claims.

If he's only moving in with your mum while he recouperates then it shouldn't affect her benefits as it will only be a temporary stay. If it's long term and he's given up his own tenancy then he will be classed as a non dependant in her household. Those under 25 and in receipt of IS or JSA income based are ignored as non dependants but if they receive any other benefit (or have no income at all) your mum will lose approx £8 pw from her housing benefit.
That is unless she gets the care component of DLA then non deps are ignored anyway.

He also needs to consider making a claim to the Motor Insurers Bureau. I don't know a lot about it apart from they consider paying damages in situations such as when there's been a hit and run and drivers can't be located or in other cases if a driver was uninsured.

Depending on how he is in a few months he needs to think about making a claim for DLA but there are qualifying conditions for this which are too long to go into here.