living on no money

geranium_2

hi there

my friend is ill and has been turned down for incapacity benefit, she is still employed, though she gets no money from employer so she has not income whatsoever. she is going through process of appealing and is also applying for income support and dla, but is borrowing money from her 86 year old mother to eat and pay mortgage. i don't understand why she's getting nothing from dwp, what can i/she do? she's been to Citizens Advice Bureau but they've said it takes 6-8 months for an appeal.
Best wishes

TobyIV

Incapacity benefit is independant of other income anyway. On what grounds have they turned down her claim?

Maybe she could put in a new claim based on the anxiety and depression caused by the refusal

joeblack066

How long has she been off work for?

Jarvisma

This deosn't make sense. If she has met the criteria for recieving ssp previously and this has now ended she should be able to claim Incapacity benefit ok.

Has she recieved any ssp from her employer in the past? Or was she turned down for this. If so it may have been because her earnings weretoo low and has not paid enough National Insurance.

From the benefit side though, what was the reason they gave for turning her down? Really the people on here would need to know all of the details so they can give you the best advice.

urban_spirit

Hi Geranium

If your friend has failed the IB criteria this could be due to her not scoring enough points on the application or at an IB medical.

In my experience, claimants can be desperately ill but still fail the medical (ie-found fit for work). Due to a government push to get people off IB (started by Mr Blunkett) many have failed the recent medicals, and this has had a huge knock-on effect to appeals sections who are overwhelmed with cases - hence the long wait for the appeal to be heard.

It would help your friend if she had someone to fight on her behalf - eg a good welfare benefits adviser/cab adviser or a local mp - who knows the system well and can raise the profile of the case(particularly if she is in severe financial hardship).