Severe Disability Premium & Care.

joydivisionforever

Hi I have been advised to apply for ESA income related,I’m currently contribution based,I was also told that I would qualify for the severe disability premium if I was on Income related ESA,could I use the additional £s from the SDP to pay towards disabled living costs,equipment etc or would this automatically go towards paying for my care,which I pay part towards.
thanks for any advice.

poppy12345

joydivisionforever said:

Hi I have been advised to apply for ESA income related,I’m currently contribution based,I was also told that I would qualify for the severe disability premium if I was on Income related ESA,could I use the additional £s from the SDP to pay towards disabled living costs,equipment etc or would this automatically go towards paying for my care,which I pay part towards.
thanks for any advice.

To apply for the income related top ups (disability premiums) you need to be claiming the old Contributions based ESA, if you're claiming New style ESA there's no disability premiums payable.

If it's the oid Contributions based ESA then there's 2 disability premiums payable, Enhanced disability premium and severe disability premium. Whether you would quaify for any of these will depend on your circumstances.

If you're receiving any pensions then these will reduce the income related top up £1 for £1. Savings/capital between £6,000 and £16,000 would reduce the top up by £1 for every £250 over £6,000. Savings of more than £16,000 and you won't be entitled to any income related top up. For the SDP you need to be living alone and no one must be claiming carers allowance or the carers element of Universal Credit for looking after you.

What you choose to spend your benefit money on is entirely your decision.

To be assessed for the income related top up you need to ring DWP and ask them.

Edit to add, looking at previous threads i see you were receiving a pension each week, although this was quite sometime ago. If you're still receiving this pension then as advised, this would reduce your entitlement to the disability premium top ups £1 for £1. Whether there would be any entitlement will depend on how much pension you're now claiming, if any.