How many holidays can you go on if on disability benefits?

williewonder

I claim disability benefits for a severe mental illness. I'm in remission at the moment but do get loads of support from the mental health team as well as being on a community treatment order and forced to take monthly antipsychotic medication. My community nurse thinks its positive that I book holidays as it's good for my mental health and that I have a long history of MH illness and that I'm not going anything wrong. Is this taking the !!!!!!. I get quite a large amount of benefits and little expenditure as I live in supported living. Is there a limit how many times you can go on holiday if you're on benefits?

Since Oct last year I have been too.

- Cornwall with my sister - 7 days
- Edinburgh to see a show with my support staff - 2 nights 
- Sri Lanka - on my own - 28 days
- Ireland with a friend - 5 days

Booked for later this year.
- Turkey with my support staff - 7 days - going on Monday
- Italy with a friend - 9 days

Next year 2023

- Sri Lanka on my own - 28 days
- Morocco with my staff - 7 days
- Kerala, India - On my own - 28 days

2024

Sri Lanka - on my own - March - 28 days.

elsien

I don’t think there is a number.
It’s probably more about being careful not to contradict the reasons you get the disability benefit. 

Spoonie_Turtle

You've posted about this before and the advice (and concerns) are likely to be the same this time round, to be honest.


For ESA or UC you can be absent from the UK for up to 4 weeks at once (or longer if going for medical treatment, which I assume from your post is irrelevant to you).

Housing Benefit I believe is also 4 weeks.

For PIP it's 13 weeks.

There doesn't appear to be any set restrictions on holidays within the UK.

williewonder

I successfully went to Sri Lanka for 28 days. I have a in-depth meeting will all my MDT team and it was agreed I could go so I did. This was in March and it was successful.

calcotti

williewonder said:

I successfully went to Sri Lanka for 28 days. 

Intending to go for 28 days is a risk because if there are any delays you would breach the 28 rule and lose entitlement to ESA and HB. 

I can't remember whether days when you leave and arrive (part in UK and part outside UK) count as days on holiday or days abroad.

[Deleted User]

Hi I am curious. 
Who is your support staff? Are they NHS workers? And why Siri Lanka? You have connections there?

I guess if you ask the benefits service you will get the correct answer. 

poppy12345

castanha said:

I guess if you ask the benefits service you will get the correct answer. 

When ringing DWP you are ringing a call centre who have very limited knowledge on any benefits. The last place anyone should ring for advice is them.

Lifematters

OP has said they have very little expenditure due to living in supported accommodation and the community nurse has advised that holidays would be good for their mental health so what better way to spend their money? 

No amount of holidays would want me to swap places with OP.  I would rather have good physical and mental health, as I think most people would. I don’t begrudge them all the holidays they are able to take.

nannytone_2

I would take the OP's posts with a pinch of salt.
There is a history of similar posts, over a long period of time.
Even with maximum benefit payments, travel vosts for support workers, plus 24/7 wages for those workers, is in the realm of fantasy.
Also Sri Lanka has been, and continues to be, a no go area because of internal issues

lisyloo

I get the sentiment but you don’t get to tell people what they can and can’t spend YOUR money on even if they appear to be making bad decisions (she might have been buying fags for a relative who can’t get to the shops). The OPs holidays could be paid for by a wealthy relative.

you may be an exception but most people are net takers over their lives, so most people believe they are subsiding others when if fact they are being subsidised (or will be during their lifetimes).

personally I’d rather be healthy and working (even if struggling) than to have health issues of any kind, so it doesn’t make me jealous at all.

but I totally get the strong sense of fairness.
those of us who are healthy are lucky

elsien

nannytone_2 said:

I would take the OP's posts with a pinch of salt.
There is a history of similar posts, over a long period of time.
Even with maximum benefit payments, travel vosts for support workers, plus 24/7 wages for those workers, is in the realm of fantasy.
Also Sri Lanka has been, and continues to be, a no go area because of internal issues

When I was a support worker we didn’t get paid 24/7 for accompanying people on holiday. We were paid our usual rate plus additional sleep ins if needed. The cost to the person for staff were the extra ones - food, accommodation, travel. Wages didn’t come into it. 

And the guidance about non-essential travel didn’t kick in till May.