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New Claim - Help, I don't know what I'm doing :(
iamiamiam
Posts: 1 Newbie
This full post is quite long. You dont necessarily have to have all of the background information to give me some advice; it just may help. You can skip to the dotted line below the background info if you want.
Background:
I have been suffering from mental health difficulties for a long time, since I was about 14 really, and I am 24 now. Specifically, I was diagnosed with Social Anxiety Disorder many years ago, and my history is very complicated so I won't go into it in great detail, but essentially, due to being brought up in a domestic abuse household, with an extremely abusive parent, I had severe difficulties in trusting other people at all during my adolescent years. To cut a long story short, I managed to access support through the Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAMHS) which I was referred to via a social worker who served the care home I ended up in.
Though I had some very low lows during my journey to recovery after I was removed from my family home, including suicide attempts and hospitalisation in a mental health unit, I did eventually manage to get to a point where I could work, I could cope with daily life, and I even managed to go to university and graduate.
During my time at university, I was under the Community Mental Health Team (CMHT) and I was under a care plan, part of which was for me to be seen twice a week by a therapist, and to attend an abuse survivors group. It was in this group that I met my now long term partner, who suffers from clinical major depression and generalised anxiety disorder.
Slowly, over the four years that we have been together, I have come to provide more and more care for my partner due to his depression. During the first 3 years of this time, we were both studying at university, so our incomes were secured by our student loans. My partner took twice as long to complete his course, due to his poor health, and only finished it because he became registered as a disabled student and received reasonable adjustments and mentoring due to that. After graduating in 2015, my partner managed to get employment, and so did I, and we were saving money while I made an application to study at masters level.
I got accepted into the course, and everything seemed hopeful.
Then, in May 2016, I began to have very distressing symptoms - flashbacks of my childhood, panic attacks, suicidal ideations, dissociative periods, compulsions to pull my hair out. I went to my GP and they put me on a waiting list for Improcing Access to Psychological Therapies (IAPT) and on medication (Sertraline, 100mg). Unfortunately, I became worried that my health wasn't good enough to study and relocate at that time, so I deferred my master's to start in 2017 instead.
Between May 2016, and August 2017, I remained on the IAPT list with no help apart from medication, and my problems stayed roughly the same, maybe decreasing now and then, and I managed to continue working.
I decided to move and begin my course in August 2017, as I couldn't defer it again, and at first it was ok, but I found it really difficult not living with my partner , who started with his parents due to his I'll health and not wanting to jeopardize me settling into my course by me having to give up time to care for him. However, in December 2017, I became too unwell to continue my studies and had to drop down to part time. I couldn't leave the house anymore due to anxiety attacks, and because my partner's parents were having to downsize due to financial difficulty he moved in with me. This eased my agoraphobic tendancies a little, as I feel safe leaving the house with his but not alone.
The situation now:
Upon moving into my flat, my partner was called for jury duty. He tries to refuse due to his I'll health but they said he had to do it. The cases were 2 of the most serious kind, involving minors. This experience has made my partner have a complete breakdown. His depression has never been as bad as it is now, and I now find myself caring for him first and foremost on a daily basis, sometimes managing to squeeze in some university work, whilst so trying to look after myself.
I am under a CMHT again now, am taking medication, have been diagnosed with Generalised Anxiety Disorder (GAD) and Complex Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (c-PTSD). I have a psychotherapist I see weekly, as well as a GP monthly, a university mental health advisor weekly, and an academic mentor weekly also.
My partner is also on medication, seeing his GP monthly, has been on the list for IAPT for 5 months, and his GP is going to refer him to CMHT at the end of this month if he still hasnt been offered any therapy.
My partner has no income from work.
He has made a claim for Employment Support Allowance (ESA), and Personal Independence Payment (PIP) with the help of Citizens Advice Bureau (CAB). He is currently in the assessment phase of ESA and has not yet received his first payment (due next week), and his deadline for PIP is the 6th of April. He has received his ESA50 form, the deadline for which is April 23rd.
I am finding it difficult to understand the rules when it comes to benefits and student loans. I am a postgraduate student now, but I have changed to part time due to poor health. Therefore, instead of the full loan, I have received £6784 this year. As far as I can tell, only 30% of this is to be considered as income for a means test. So that's £2035 a year, or £44 a week.
I have put in a claim for housing benefit, to help with rent, and for council tax too. I really need the questions below clarified, if anyone can help I would really appreciate it.
Summary of current income/benefit stiutation&what I need help with:
My partner (26 y/o, unemployed, income = 0) has made a claim for: ESA and PIP. He suffers from severe depression.
I (24 y/o, part time postgraduate student, income = £44p/w) have made a claim for Housing Benefit and Council Tax help. I suffer from cPTSD, GAD and systemic lupus.
1. When my partner claimed ESA, they asked all about me, my income and my health, so I assumed they were assessing us as a couple. Is this possible? Or should I have been making my own claim for ESA from the beginning, so that they can be 'linked' together? I can't work at the moment, and I need more of an income than £44p/w so I'm worried that when my part we gets his first payment I may find that it's not for the both of us but just him.
2. I think that I should have been claiming carer's allowance for quite a while now, in terms of how much care I provide for my partner, and I know that I will only be eligible to do this once my partner hears the decision on his PIP claim. Can I claim ESA and carer's allowance at the same time?
3. If I put in a claim for ESA now, and the carer's Allowance at later date once I know the decision on my partners PIP, might I need to pay some of the ESA back if the carer's is backdated to cover the same period in which I was recieving ESA?
4. I've been told by CAB that carer's allowance can limit how much money you can get when it comes to other benefits. Which ones might it limit?
5. We live in a 1-bed private rent in council tax band A (cheapest), but the rent is still higher than we can afford. I could afford it when I moved in as a full time student with a proposed £10280 loan, but now I've gone part time due to ill health j don't have enough. My LA rate is £400pcm, but the rent is £525pcm. Do you think our situation is one which the council may award a discretionary housing payment for, while we look for somewhere cheaper to rent?
Thank you for any help that you can offer.
I am totally panicked and at a loss when I comes to dealing with the DWP. I have had 5 phone cla with them in the last 2 days trying to sort my partner's claim alone and I am really scared that this isall just going to make both of us iller from stress.
Background:
I have been suffering from mental health difficulties for a long time, since I was about 14 really, and I am 24 now. Specifically, I was diagnosed with Social Anxiety Disorder many years ago, and my history is very complicated so I won't go into it in great detail, but essentially, due to being brought up in a domestic abuse household, with an extremely abusive parent, I had severe difficulties in trusting other people at all during my adolescent years. To cut a long story short, I managed to access support through the Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAMHS) which I was referred to via a social worker who served the care home I ended up in.
Though I had some very low lows during my journey to recovery after I was removed from my family home, including suicide attempts and hospitalisation in a mental health unit, I did eventually manage to get to a point where I could work, I could cope with daily life, and I even managed to go to university and graduate.
During my time at university, I was under the Community Mental Health Team (CMHT) and I was under a care plan, part of which was for me to be seen twice a week by a therapist, and to attend an abuse survivors group. It was in this group that I met my now long term partner, who suffers from clinical major depression and generalised anxiety disorder.
Slowly, over the four years that we have been together, I have come to provide more and more care for my partner due to his depression. During the first 3 years of this time, we were both studying at university, so our incomes were secured by our student loans. My partner took twice as long to complete his course, due to his poor health, and only finished it because he became registered as a disabled student and received reasonable adjustments and mentoring due to that. After graduating in 2015, my partner managed to get employment, and so did I, and we were saving money while I made an application to study at masters level.
I got accepted into the course, and everything seemed hopeful.
Then, in May 2016, I began to have very distressing symptoms - flashbacks of my childhood, panic attacks, suicidal ideations, dissociative periods, compulsions to pull my hair out. I went to my GP and they put me on a waiting list for Improcing Access to Psychological Therapies (IAPT) and on medication (Sertraline, 100mg). Unfortunately, I became worried that my health wasn't good enough to study and relocate at that time, so I deferred my master's to start in 2017 instead.
Between May 2016, and August 2017, I remained on the IAPT list with no help apart from medication, and my problems stayed roughly the same, maybe decreasing now and then, and I managed to continue working.
I decided to move and begin my course in August 2017, as I couldn't defer it again, and at first it was ok, but I found it really difficult not living with my partner , who started with his parents due to his I'll health and not wanting to jeopardize me settling into my course by me having to give up time to care for him. However, in December 2017, I became too unwell to continue my studies and had to drop down to part time. I couldn't leave the house anymore due to anxiety attacks, and because my partner's parents were having to downsize due to financial difficulty he moved in with me. This eased my agoraphobic tendancies a little, as I feel safe leaving the house with his but not alone.
The situation now:
Upon moving into my flat, my partner was called for jury duty. He tries to refuse due to his I'll health but they said he had to do it. The cases were 2 of the most serious kind, involving minors. This experience has made my partner have a complete breakdown. His depression has never been as bad as it is now, and I now find myself caring for him first and foremost on a daily basis, sometimes managing to squeeze in some university work, whilst so trying to look after myself.
I am under a CMHT again now, am taking medication, have been diagnosed with Generalised Anxiety Disorder (GAD) and Complex Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (c-PTSD). I have a psychotherapist I see weekly, as well as a GP monthly, a university mental health advisor weekly, and an academic mentor weekly also.
My partner is also on medication, seeing his GP monthly, has been on the list for IAPT for 5 months, and his GP is going to refer him to CMHT at the end of this month if he still hasnt been offered any therapy.
My partner has no income from work.
He has made a claim for Employment Support Allowance (ESA), and Personal Independence Payment (PIP) with the help of Citizens Advice Bureau (CAB). He is currently in the assessment phase of ESA and has not yet received his first payment (due next week), and his deadline for PIP is the 6th of April. He has received his ESA50 form, the deadline for which is April 23rd.
I am finding it difficult to understand the rules when it comes to benefits and student loans. I am a postgraduate student now, but I have changed to part time due to poor health. Therefore, instead of the full loan, I have received £6784 this year. As far as I can tell, only 30% of this is to be considered as income for a means test. So that's £2035 a year, or £44 a week.
I have put in a claim for housing benefit, to help with rent, and for council tax too. I really need the questions below clarified, if anyone can help I would really appreciate it.
Summary of current income/benefit stiutation&what I need help with:
My partner (26 y/o, unemployed, income = 0) has made a claim for: ESA and PIP. He suffers from severe depression.
I (24 y/o, part time postgraduate student, income = £44p/w) have made a claim for Housing Benefit and Council Tax help. I suffer from cPTSD, GAD and systemic lupus.
1. When my partner claimed ESA, they asked all about me, my income and my health, so I assumed they were assessing us as a couple. Is this possible? Or should I have been making my own claim for ESA from the beginning, so that they can be 'linked' together? I can't work at the moment, and I need more of an income than £44p/w so I'm worried that when my part we gets his first payment I may find that it's not for the both of us but just him.
2. I think that I should have been claiming carer's allowance for quite a while now, in terms of how much care I provide for my partner, and I know that I will only be eligible to do this once my partner hears the decision on his PIP claim. Can I claim ESA and carer's allowance at the same time?
3. If I put in a claim for ESA now, and the carer's Allowance at later date once I know the decision on my partners PIP, might I need to pay some of the ESA back if the carer's is backdated to cover the same period in which I was recieving ESA?
4. I've been told by CAB that carer's allowance can limit how much money you can get when it comes to other benefits. Which ones might it limit?
5. We live in a 1-bed private rent in council tax band A (cheapest), but the rent is still higher than we can afford. I could afford it when I moved in as a full time student with a proposed £10280 loan, but now I've gone part time due to ill health j don't have enough. My LA rate is £400pcm, but the rent is £525pcm. Do you think our situation is one which the council may award a discretionary housing payment for, while we look for somewhere cheaper to rent?
Thank you for any help that you can offer.
I am totally panicked and at a loss when I comes to dealing with the DWP. I have had 5 phone cla with them in the last 2 days trying to sort my partner's claim alone and I am really scared that this isall just going to make both of us iller from stress.
0
Comments
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Can't provide advice on most but you cannot claim Carers Allowance unless you provide someone with at least 36 hours per week.
If you do, and do claim, you will lose £34.95 a week from ESA, then be paid the CA rate weekly.
Meaning you'd be £34.94 better off, but as I said, you must provide care for at least 36 hours a week.
You will only be able to claim this if the PiP claim is successful and even then I have to say given what you have said, I doubt he will be entitled to it; even if he is, it will be the low rate which in turn will not allow a carers allowance award to be paid.0 -
Also, I am right you have made a joint ESA claim?
As this must be done if you live together and/or together.
I read as if you have but you say you are worried it will only be for him
I know that savings above £6000 will reduce any income, and I am not sure if this will mean you will find you are awarded less.
If it is, this is at the rate of £1 for every £250 above the threshold, per week.
Lastly, I think your circumstances are so complex it may be worth it to make an appointment for advice, that you both attend at somewhere like an advice centre.
Try using the Entitiedto website, see what it says.0 -
I'm sorry but that advice is completely wrong! Also to advice someone that they won't get a benefit is wrong, you have no idea what the OP goes through everyday.Can't provide advice on most but you cannot claim Carers Allowance unless you provide someone with at least 36 hours per week.
If you do, and do claim, you will lose £34.95 a week from ESA, then be paid the CA rate weekly.
Meaning you'd be £34.94 better off, but as I said, you must provide care for at least 36 hours a week.
You will only be able to claim this if the PiP claim is successful and even then I have to say given what you have said, I doubt he will be entitled to it; even if he is, it will be the low rate which in turn will not allow a carers allowance award to be paid.
OP firstly to be able to claim Carers Allowance your partner must first have an award of daily living PIP, which he hasn't yet got. If his claim for PIP is successful then you maybe able to claim it if you're studying for less than 21 hours per week and you care for him for at least 35 hours per week. I say maybe because full time students can't claim Carers Allowance but you say you're part time and not full time.
The ESA claim will be a joint claim because you are classed as a couple. I'm afraid i can't advice you about the student loan affected your ESA claim because student loans and means tested benefits are very complicated.
You don't mention that you've started a PIP claim for yourself? Have you considered doing this? It maybe worth trying at least, as you have nothing to lose.
For all of the claims you'll need some evidence. Letters from GP/Consultants, Social Workers. Mental health team, anything like this is good.
I'm sure others will come along and advice you further. Good luck.0 -
First of all you need to go to the welfare department of your university and check that you are receiving all the loans that you are entitled to particularly as you have strong evidence of your mental health problems and now have a partner living with you.
Once you have done this then you will know whether the current award is correct and if entitled to some other grant/loan you would then have a breakdown of what is awarded for what for your ESA claim.
Your ESA must be a couple one. If you and your partner are awarded income based ESA then you will have an automatic entitlement to HB. If you could afford the rent on your home when you moved in (which you say you could) and haven't claimed HB in the last 52 weeks then they will pay your whole rent for 13 weeks. (ask for this)
Has your partner's name been added to your tenancy agreement? This might be a good move so that the council has proof that you and your partner have a liability for rent. If you have longer than 13 weeks before you can end your tenancy then apply for a Discretionary Housing Payment telling them of your mental health problems and having to go part time on your course.
You may not need to do this if you get some extra funding re: your student status.
You need to put in a claim for PIP asap. Go back to CAB for help with this. Did they help complete your partner's ESA and PIP forms?
Once you and your partner have decisions about your PIP then you can decide whether you claim Carer's allowance or not. If you are both awarded the daily living award of PIP then ask CAB to do a better off calculation as regards CA or claiming the Severe Disability element of ESA.
Take one step at a time so speak to the welfare department of your university first.
I can't help but think that you have a 'lot on your plate' at the moment. Can you cope with your course or would you consider stopping until you and your partner have received some support for your mental health problems? Just a thought.............
Please come back for any further help or to ask any questions.0 -
Poppy I'd appreciate if you didn't accuse my advice as wrong.
Given what the OP explained, as I said, he would not be entitled to PIP.
Given I know people with serious mental health problems more serious than how the OP explained refused PIP, I can confirm what she has explained will not in itself allow an award.
Do not be so rude to me again, thank you.0 -
Poppy I'd appreciate if you didn't accuse my advice as wrong.
Given what the OP explained, as I said, he would not be entitled to PIP.
Given I know people with serious mental health problems more serious than how the OP explained refused PIP, I can confirm what she has explained will not in itself allow an award.
Do not be so rude to me again, thank you.
None of us here on a forum can give a definitive answer as to who will qualify for a benefit - only a DWP decision maker or tribunal can make that call.
I don't see any reason why the OP can't put in a claim for PIP. Based purely on what she said I think she has a good chance of award. I know people with what on the face of it are similar needs who claim it.
The people you know with severe problems need help from a appropriate agency with making a claim. We all know that there are huge problems with the system, people not getting what they're entitled to. There are many, many more people who do have successful claims with no problems, they're just never heard from. I worry that the problem cases drown out the straightforward ones and stop people claiming.
You also said that receipt of the lower rate of PIP doesn't give entitlement to carer's allowance. This is incorrect. There is no 'lower rate' of PIP, there are standard or enhanced and both provide eligibility to CA as long as the other conditions (35 hours per week care, income etc) are met.
Poppy was perhaps a little blunt, but I agree with her. I'd hate for someone to be put off claiming because of a post on the internet.Unless I say otherwise 'you' means the general you not you specifically.0 -
I agree entirely with you. When I read the post I also thought OK she has had a bad time, but given what I know and have experienced with both DLA and PIP I doubt very much based on what has been said so far any award would be given.Poppy I'd appreciate if you didn't accuse my advice as wrong.
Given what the OP explained, as I said, he would not be entitled to PIP.
Given I know people with serious mental health problems more serious than how the OP explained refused PIP, I can confirm what she has explained will not in itself allow an award.
Do not be so rude to me again, thank you.
I too have been through the same system, twice, been sectioned etc etc. I've had 24 years of the 'system' and everything that goes with it. Yet none of my DLA or PIP awards has ever mentioned any difficulties arising out of the mental health problems. All of my awards have been given purely on physical disabilities. The only saving grace is that a proper doctor has assessed and then re-assessed me for Industrial Injuries Disablement Benefit for which I have a 'for life award' of 40% reduction in mental capacity.0 -
I'm sorry but the advice you gave was wrong. As Ames has said you can claim CA with any rate of PIP daily living, and there is no low award.Poppy I'd appreciate if you didn't accuse my advice as wrong.
Given what the OP explained, as I said, he would not be entitled to PIP.
Given I know people with serious mental health problems more serious than how the OP explained refused PIP, I can confirm what she has explained will not in itself allow an award.
Do not be so rude to me again, thank you.
You also stated caring for at least 36 hours, when infact it's 35 hours.
Your whole attitude to the other person when you have no idea what they go through really wasn't very nice. You can't tell someone they won't be awarded something because their Mental health isn't as bad as someone you know.0 -
No, i wasn't having a bad day thanks. The advice the OP gave in post #2 was incorrect. Saying that a person will not be able to claim PIP based on the info given was wrong, no one has the right to say that. Lots of people claim PIP for mental health, my daughter being one of them and she gets Enhanced for both. Purely for mental health reasons.I agree entirely with you. When I read the post I also thought OK she has had a bad time, but given what I know and have experienced with both DLA and PIP I doubt very much based on what has been said so far any award would be given.
I too have been through the same system, twice, been sectioned etc etc. I've had 24 years of the 'system' and everything that goes with it. Yet none of my DLA or PIP awards has ever mentioned any difficulties arising out of the mental health problems. All of my awards have been given purely on physical disabilities. The only saving grace is that a proper doctor has assessed and then re-assessed me for Industrial Injuries Disablement Benefit for which I have a 'for life award' of 40% reduction in mental capacity.0 -
Poppy was spot on, she echoed my thoughts exactly.0
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