Benefits when being medically retired in your 30s

Spoonie_Turtle

Reading the title I'd have said ESA, but if she's actually pretty much fine and and can work (any type of job, even if it's not her previous one) then maybe not. 

UC might be possible but it would fully take into account her pension.  As a single person without any rent or long-term health issues affecting her ability to work in general, her max UC would be £368.74/month. 

So if her pension is more than that then no means-tested help available and her only option would be JSA.  Unless her mental health affecrs her ability to work and she could either pursue a UC claim, or claim ESA but that would probably still have a deduction for her pension too.  Just maybe less than the JSA deduction.

PIP will depend on whether her injury and/or mental health issues affect activities of daily living enough to reach the high threshold of qualifying for it.

poppy12345

For New style JSA any pension of up to £50/week is ignored. After this the JSA is reduced £1 for £1.

pinnks

poppy12345 said:

UC is a means tested benefit so any earnings she receives at the moment will reduce her UC by 55p for every £1 of earnings she receives each month. When she starts to receive her pension then this will reduce her UC £1 for £1 because it's classed as "other income."

To claim for help with the mortgage through SMI then she needs to be receiving UC for at least 3 months in a row. https://www.gov.uk/support-for-mortgage-interest/eligibility

If she has a limited capability for work she can apply for New style ESA but if her earnings per week are currently more than £167 she will need to wait until her earnings stop. Pensions of up to £85/week are ignored. For every £1/week over this amount there's a 50p/week deduction in the ESA. 

They will look at her NI contributions from the previous 2 tax years (currently 2020/21 and 2021/22) to be entitled to payments and it pays £84.80/week, increrasing to £129.50/week from the 14th week if placed into the Support Group. (25 and over) from the 1st Sunday in January the years change to 2021/22 and 2022/23. She will also need a fit note to claim this. https://www.gov.uk/guidance/new-style-employment-and-support-allowance

While she is still earning, she cannot, I think, claim anything as she is still on a £40k annual equivalent, even though written off still, so any claims would kick in from the day after her last day of employment.  

It seems her guestimated pension pretty much wipes out any UC entitlement on that 1:1 basis, which begins to make the position clearer in my mind.

nsESA might be something to consider.  She has full NI coverage, and is currently still on fit notes, so it would come down to any assessment and I would imagine that if she is assessed to any category it would be the work-related group.  

Alice_Holt

pinnks said:

Alice_Holt said:

pinnks said:

Our daughter, 31, just found out she is being medically retired from a job paying about £40k following physical injury (HR procedures have been properly followed, so it is going to happen).  She also has some mental health issues but is fully capable of living alone, holding down any normally-physical job and recently got back into jogging and ran in a 5km fun-run. 

She has started looking for work but may, or may not, be successful before her last salary hits the bank. She therefore needs to look at what help may be available in the worst case scenario of having no work.

She will remain on full salary until her final day, after which she anticipates an ill-heath pension of about £5,000 per year (numbers not yet available but that is an educated guess).  She is buying her home, with a mortgage of just over £130k and lives alone.  Savings are about £5,000, so that will not last her long once her salary stops.  Like many, her mortgage payments are rocketing…

I tried a benefits calculator but it comes out showing her only entitlements are to £38pw new style JSA and £18pw Council Tax support (looks to be about 50% of the full amount for the property before the 25% single person reduction, so she would still need to find about 25% of the full amount).  She apparently doesn’t qualify for UC.  She applied for PIP when initially recovering from her injury but was rejected.  Whether that would now be different is not known. 

I guess she could apply for a Support for Mortgage Interest loan but frankly, we would prefer to cover that part if there is no other option as having a loan to pay interest on a loan grates.

This looks dire to me – am I doing something wrong, or is this how it is?

     Unfortunately this is how it is. The UK welfare safety net is threadbare.

You have identified the available benefits. New Sytle JSa will be reduced by the pension income, see:
https://www.disabilityrightsuk.org/resources/new-style-jobseekers-allowance#:~:text=New style JSA is not,from your new style JSA.

There will be no UC entitlement as her standard weekly amount c.£85 is extinguished by nsJSA and the pension income.

She won't have eligibility for SMI, as it requires the claimant to be in receipt of a means-tested benefit such as UC:
https://www.gov.uk/support-for-mortgage-interest/eligibility

It's worth pursuing PIP, as many flawed assessments are overturned at tribunal.  Get advice from the local advice charity on eligibility and possibility of a successful challenge:
  https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/benefits/sick-or-disabled-people-and-carers/pip/ 

If the injury was incurred at work, then the other benefit to consider is Industrial Injuries Benefit:  
https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/benefits/sick-or-disabled-people-and-carers/getting-benefits-if-you-got-ill-or-were-injured-at-work/

We can have another look at/think about PIP, and I don't know all of the details around the original claim as it "was what it was" and life moved on, but I have a feeling (took a look at GOV UK on eligibility today) that given her physical recovery and the overall mental health position, that even if an appeal could have been successful during the initial months of her physical recovery, it feels more likely than not that a new claim would not succeed.  But still something to take another critical look at...

          A PIP challenge has an absolute deadline of 13 months from the date of the decision letter.  After one month, reasons for lateness have to be given. In your daughters case this might be her mental health combined with a delay in getting advice.

     https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/benefits/sick-or-disabled-people-and-carers/pip/appeals/mandatory-reconsideration-pip/

     If she appeals then the tribunal will look at her conditions / abilities at the date that the DWP made the decision to refuse her claim.   Most decisions are unchanged at MR stage, and the appeal is heard at tribunal stage. 

Brie

Any possibility of council tax reduction?  Some on low income in this area pay £25 a month instead of 10 times that.  And what about looking into lower tariffs for utilities, phone, internet, water - some of those things are benefit related but there may be something that could apply short term at least due to the low income.  

pinnks

Thanks Alice - the appeal route is long-since closed then.  Whether a fresh claim is even possible is another question.  But reading all of the answers and advice so far, I have the feeling that the probable only route will be nsJSA and Council Tax support if she doesn't find something before her P45 drops through the letterbox.

pinnks

Brie said:

Any possibility of council tax reduction?  Some on low income in this area pay £25 a month instead of 10 times that.  And what about looking into lower tariffs for utilities, phone, internet, water - some of those things are benefit related but there may be something that could apply short term at least due to the low income.  

CT reduction is suggested on the calculator I used, so one to follow up.  We'll have a look at the others too...

poppy12345

pinnks said:

probable only route will be nsJSA and Council Tax support

Whether there's any entitlement to NsJSA will depend on how much her pension will be. If there is any entitlement it's only paid for 6 months.

pinnks

She did - albeit 18 months into her recovery and long after the original claim was made and rejected.  As Brie highlighted that was also long after any appeal against the original decision could have been made too. 

Spoonie_Turtle

pinnks said:

poppy12345 said:

UC is a means tested benefit so any earnings she receives at the moment will reduce her UC by 55p for every £1 of earnings she receives each month. When she starts to receive her pension then this will reduce her UC £1 for £1 because it's classed as "other income."

To claim for help with the mortgage through SMI then she needs to be receiving UC for at least 3 months in a row. https://www.gov.uk/support-for-mortgage-interest/eligibility

If she has a limited capability for work she can apply for New style ESA but if her earnings per week are currently more than £167 she will need to wait until her earnings stop. Pensions of up to £85/week are ignored. For every £1/week over this amount there's a 50p/week deduction in the ESA. 

They will look at her NI contributions from the previous 2 tax years (currently 2020/21 and 2021/22) to be entitled to payments and it pays £84.80/week, increrasing to £129.50/week from the 14th week if placed into the Support Group. (25 and over) from the 1st Sunday in January the years change to 2021/22 and 2022/23. She will also need a fit note to claim this. https://www.gov.uk/guidance/new-style-employment-and-support-allowance

nsESA might be something to consider.  She has full NI coverage, and is currently still on fit notes, so it would come down to any assessment and I would imagine that if she is assessed to any category it would be the work-related group.  

Do be aware that the possible outcomes from the assessment include 'fit for work' which would then end entitlement to ESA.  But it may be worth claiming even if only for the time it takes to get a decision, especially as pension income is ignored up to £85 per week rather than the £50 per week of JSA.

The descriptors for ESA are here 
https://www.entitledto.co.uk/help/esa_criteria
With the caveat that someone must be able to do something repeatedly, reliably, safely, and as often as required to count as being able to do the activity.