Benefits help /advice.

Wacko18

I am currently on ESA (been placed in contributory support group after being on IB for 8 yrs), and on DLA for chronic long term ill health. I live in my parents home and they are recently retired and on basic pensions. We claim no other benefits and things are quite a struggle at home and I was wondering if there is any additional help available?

calcotti

In respect of your own situation I would expect you to have an entitlement to an income based ESA top up unless your transitional protection from IB is greater than the income based ESA would be. You may have been incorrectly transferred from IB - all such transfers are currently being reviewed by the DWP. If you had no transitional protection you would normally get £110.75 contribution based ESA plus an income based top up to £127.15.

In respect of your parents they may be entitled to Pension Credit to top up their pensions, they may be entitled to Council Tax Reduction to help with the Council Tax and they may be entitled to Housing Benefit if they rent their home. Entitlement will depend entirely in their income and savings (if any).

You can put their circumstances into a benefits calculator to see what they might get https://www.entitledto.co.uk. Alternatively if you have access to a Citizens Advice office they may be able to do a benefit check for you (or other advice agency available to them).

If either of them is ill and needs help looking after themselves they may qualify for Attendance Allowance.

Tomsdottir

Your contributory ESA can be "topped up" with income related ESA. As you are in the support group, you may qualify for this top up because of the "enhanced disability premium" which is an extra £16.40 a week. So you could check your ESA award letter and see if it's referring only to contributory ESA and not income related as well. If there is no mention of that figure of £16.40 in the letter showing how your benefit is made up, contact the phone number on the letter and ask for a "revision" so that you can be awarded income related ESA as well. I don't know how long ago you were moved onto ESA, but if you were not assessed for income related ESA at the time you were moved, you may be able to get arrears of any premiums you weren't paid, back to the date you were moved onto ESA. You may wish to get help from a CAB or similar organisation to get this resolved.
If you are living in a universal credit "full service" area you may be told that you can no longer claim income related ESA, and may have to claim universal credit instead, as a top up. If that's the case, your UC should include the extra amount from the beginning of your UC claim and you should not be asked to attend another work capability assessment or fill in a UC50 form. (The DWP sometimes gets this wrong and asks you to go for another assessment.) You should still ask for arrears of that enhanced disability premium I mentioned, though, with your ESA.)
Have your parents tried claiming pension credit? If their income from pensions is less than £248.80 a week, they may qualify. If one of your parents is providing care for you and you get the DLA care component at the middle or higher rate, then s/he could make a claim for carer's allowance (CA). The CA wouldn't actually be paid if that carer is getting a state pension of £64.60 a week or more. So what's the point in claiming? It would mean they had an "underlying entitlement" to carer's allowance. That would increase the figure I mentioned earlier from £248.80 a week to £284.80. In other words, it makes it a little easier to qualify for pension credit if you are a carer.
If their income is low enough they may qualify for housing benefit (if they pay rent) or council tax reduction (if they are liable for council tax).
These benefits are means tested, but even if their income is too high for them to be paid, they might qualify for a reduction in their council tax under the disability reduction scheme. If you qualify, your council tax is dropped a band. (So if you were in Band D, for example, your council tax is charged as though you were in Band C.) This scheme is not means tested (in other words entitlement does not depend on your income or savings). You can find out about the scheme by searching for "council tax disability reduction scheme" on your local authority's website. You can have this discount backdated for at least 6 years, so if they would have qualified from an earlier date, they can ask for the discount to be backdated.

Wacko18

Thank you calcotti. I will look into the income top up you mentioned and do a benefit check up. I was transferred over to ESA and retained the same amount as IB (approx £116). Im not sure if this includes a transitional payment. If it does will this change after a certain amount of time or remain the same? Also would I still be entitled to the top up if I have a small amount of savings which is quickly being used up,?

Also is all my income and my parents income added together when assessing any claim for help with housing benefit and council tax benefit etc.?

Thanks.

Alice_Holt

Agree with Calcotti.
Possible Enhanced Disability Premium on your ESA (as your are in the Support Group):
https://www.entitledto.co.uk/help/disability-premiums-in-benefits
Look into PC for your parents:
https://www.gov.uk/pension-credit

Re PC - if you receive middle or high rate care DLA, then your parents may be eligible for a carers premium (if they care for you):
https://www.carersuk.org/help-and-advice/financial-support/help-with-benefits/other-pension-age-benefits

I'd suggest both you and your parents getting a benefits check at your local advice agency / CAB.

calcotti

Wacko18 wrote: »

Thank you calcotti. I will look into the income top up you mentioned and do a benefit check up. I was transferred over to ESA and retained the same amount as IB (approx £116). Im not sure if this includes a transitional payment. If it does will this change after a certain amount of time or remain the same? Also would I still be entitled to the top up if I have a small amount of savings which is quickly being used up,?

Also is all my income and my parents income added together when assessing any claim for help with housing benefit and council tax benefit etc.?

Thanks.

For benefits purposes your parents are a couple. You are a separate single person claimant. Your finances and benefit calculations are separate.

In respect of ESA I would expect you to be getting

If you have more than £16,000 of savings you cannot get income based ESA. If you have less than £6,000 they are ignored. Between these two figures £1 is deducted from any income based award for every £250 or part thereof above £6,000.

ESA Support Group with income based top up would be £127.15 if no savings taken into account. if you had £6,800 in savings your ESA would be reduced by £4 to £123.15.

If you had more than £16,000 at time of transfer from IB you would not have been entitled to any Income based top up.

You can ask to be assessed for income based top up at any time. You will be sent a long a form called an ESA3 which requires details of all your benefits, income and saving. DWP will then recalculate your entitlement.

Wacko18

Thanks tomsdottir.
My ESA letter mentioned on contributory based support group and that my income would stay as it did on IB. If I ask for a revision of my benefit then will it affect my support group claim as it was a very stressful time going through it and I don't want to mess that up? I was moved over 2 yrs ago.

I think my parents are just above the £248 you mentioned and they pay full rent and council tax and also they do provide care for me but I was told they were not eligible for carers allowance due to claiming pensions. I will look into the info you have provided though and about the council tax disability scheme.

Thanks for your help.

calcotti

Tomsdottir wrote: »

If you are living in a universal credit "full service" area you may be told that you can no longer claim income related ESA, and may have to claim universal credit instead, as a top up.

The DWP would be wrong if they said that. Contribution based and income based ESA are two parts of one benefit, a new claim is not required and therefore a switch to UC should not be triggered.

poppy12345

For housing benefit purposes unless your parents are receiving Attendance Allowance or DLA then there will be a non dependent deduction for the housing benefit.

https://england.shelter.org.uk/housing_advice/housing_benefit/housing_benefit_deductions_when_living_with_non-dependants

calcotti

Thanks to Tom and Alice for picking on possibility of a parent claiming Carer’s Allowance so as to boost Pension Credit entitlement if applicable. I overlooked that in my response.

poppy12345

Tomsdottir wrote: »

If you are living in a universal credit "full service" area you may be told that you can no longer claim income related ESA, and may have to claim universal credit instead, as a top up.

This is not correct. If the OP is living in a full UC area then they should ask for a supersession for their existing ESA claim to be able to claim the Income Related top up. Doing this will mean they won't have to apply for UC.

See link last part of paragraph 6.
http://www.cpag.org.uk/content/esa-uc