Incapacity Benefit & Income Support totals

I'm just answering to give you a quick reply (I'm sure others will be along who know more than me).
Yes IB is counted as income for calculation of IS: I've been in the same situation myself. (if you were in a situation to claim DLA this wouldn't be counted as income).

Cat72 wrote:

Probably the best thing you could do is put a claim on for disability living allowance and forget claiming IS. You can get detils of it on the web site, but you are probably best phoning up and getting a form and applying. Out of all the goverments forms I found it the easiest to fill in.

Yes IB will be taken off the IS, but it is still worth claiming IS because of premiums, free prescriptions etc. that you might need which you can only get if on IS. It is worth it even if it is only 25p more.

I am assuming the figure of £67.75 to be Higher short term rate of Incapacity Benefit from April 2005. Is the extra which entitles you to IS because you receive the Enhanced Disability Premium in IS? (If so you would already be on DLA). You would only get this premium if you claim IS so again, it is worth it.

I disagree about DLA forms being easy to fill in as you need to be careful about how you describe your condition, and they take a long time to fill in.