Incapacity - is it worth reapplying?

sghughes42

Apologies if this has been covered elsewhere - the information I can find is very confusing!

In early December, SWMBO was diagnosed with depression and given a sick note. At the time, she was on income-based jobseekers. She applied for income support and incapacity benefit, and while she has got the income support, she was refused incapacity as she didn't have enough contributions.

Can anyone explain how to work out if you have enough contributions? I gather that as she applied in December, they would have taken in to account the three years from April 2003 to April 2006 in to account when looking at contributions. Now, during most of that period (up to December 2005) she was on a Nursing degree. From then until about April 2006 she was on a combination of jobseekers (not sure what type) and did two short stints at AQA checking exam papers. Since then she has been signing on without a break until she was signed off by the Doctor. I believe the AQA work was about NMW so she is unlikely to have been making NI contributions for this period.

Due to this, I reckon that two of the years they looked at will have had no contributions, and the third would only have limited contributions. However, as we have now passed in to a new benefit year, I believe they will count the period from April 2004 to April 2006, so she will have on year when she was a student, one year with some credits and one year of full credits. Can anyone explain how to work out if this will now qualify her for incapacity, and therefore if it is worth reapplying?

Also, what are the implications for her income support if she does get it? At the moment, she is on medication which she gets free as she is on income support. It would appear that if she was on disability only, she would need to pay for the medication instead. Is it a case of one or the other, or can you get both? Her situation is that she lives with her mother who is retired.

Any advice would be more appreciated - those of you who read other threads will know she has is looking at finding £300 for new glasses so any money she is entitled to would be more than useful!

tanith

I think you will find its either or with IS and IB... if she is on IB she has to pay for prescriptions in most cases... not sure about other benefits like Housing Benefit or DLA though sorry.. someone who has superior knowledge will be along soon...

stazi

The simplest way would be for her to ring her JCP Benefit Centre and ask if she would now qualify for IB from 6 JAN 08.

If yes- then she'll need to make a new claim from 6 JAN. She cannot get both IB and IS paid in full, and any IS would be reduced/end. To apply for help with NHS charges, she would then need to complete form HC1.

If no- she remains as she is.