Care and support

Introduction

Changes to benefits paid to people who are unable to work due to ill health or disability

Currently the main benefit for people who are incapable of work due to ill health or disability is incapacity benefit (IB). However from 27 October 2008, the Government is replacing IB with a new benefit called employment and support allowance (ESA). Existing IB claimants will initially stay on their current benefit paid at protected levels but will eventually be migrated over to the new ESA. The Government have indicated that existing IB claimants will not be worse off as a result of the introduction of ESA but as yet we do not have the full details of how this will work in practice.

These pages are split into two parts;

• Part 1 relates to people who are incapable of work prior to 27th October 08.
• Part 2 relates to people who claim on or after 27th October.