Care and support

Are you ill or disabled?

If you are incapable of working because of ill-health or disability, you may be claiming incapacity benefit for young people (IBY), which might be being topped up by income support. This will only apply if you claimed before 27th October 2008. After that date you would be claiming employment & support allowance instead.

Claimants aged under 25

People incapacitated before the age of 20 and some others aged under 25 can get incapacity benefit (IBY) or ESA without having a national insurance record. You will get benefit if you are 16 or over and

• under 20, or aged 20-25 in certain circumstances (see below), and
• been incapable of work for 196 days before the claim, and
• satisfy residence/presence conditions, and
• not in full time education (i.e. 21 hours a week or more of supervised study). If you are under 19, any part of the course that is only appropriate for a disabled person of a similar age is ignored. There are no restrictions for students aged 19 or over.

If you are on IBY it can be very difficult to work out whether you should be getting an income support 'top-up'. It depends on your age, level of disability, length of time on benefit etc. It is best to get detailed individual advice.

Because IBY is sometimes higher than income support or because ESA is being paid to them without a means-test, some disabled young people will not have an automatic right to free prescriptions and other health benefits. You may still qualify on the grounds of low income, or because of their medical condition however. In addition, if you are getting IBY/ESA and you pay rent, you will find that you may not get full housing benefit. If you live with your parents, and they get housing benefit, you may be expected to make a 'non-dependant contribution' towards the rent once you are 18 depending on your circumstances.

If you are aged 16-19 and receive IBY or ESA and/or income support in your own right, your parents can no longer claim child benefit or child tax credit for you.

Employment and support allowance (ESA)

If you want to claim benefits because you are unfit for work, and this started after October 27th 2008, you will have to claim ESA instead of income support.

The rules about savings, effect of EMA, couples, passport to other benefits etc are the same as for income support.

To claim ESA, you need to fill in a claim form and submit it with a sick note from your doctor. You can claim over the phone - 0800 055 6688.

You will then have up to 13 weeks in the ‘assessment phase’ of ESA, where you will get £50.95 a week if you are under 25. During those first 13 weeks, if you are still unfit for work, you will be assessed as having a ‘limited capacity for work’ or not. If jobcentre plus think you are fit for work, you will be told to claim JSA instead. You can appeal that decision.

If jobcentre plus accept that you have a limited capability for work, they will then decide whether you should do ‘work-related activity’ or not (e.g. going on training schemes etc). After the 13 week assessment phase, the weekly benefit goes up to £64.30 plus either £25.50 or £30.85 a week, depending on whether you are in the work-related activity or support groups. You might get extra premiums too.

If you are unable to work for six months, you will be told that you have qualified for the contributory version of ESA even though you haven’t got a national insurance record. This may not mean that much to you in practice as the amounts are the same but you won’t automatically get some of the ‘passported’ benefits listed below.

If you are 16 or over, even if still at school or college and living at home, you can apply for ESA in your own right, but your parents lose child benefit and any child tax credit they get for you. Get advice if you are in this position.

Disability living allowance

This is a benefit for people under 65 who have a physical or mental disability. There are two parts; for care and mobility.

Disability living allowance should be claimed if any of the following applies to you:

• you need help with personal care; or
• you need supervision to make sure you are safe; or
• you cannot cook a main meal without help (this only applies to people aged 16 or more); or
• you have difficulty walking; or
• you have severe behavioural problems; or
• you need guidance/supervision when walking outdoors in unfamiliar places.

When you are 16, you can start claiming disability living allowance in your own right. It is worth between £18.65 and £119.45 per week.

How to claim DLA

DLA can be claimed by telephoning the Freephone number : 0800 882 200, by completing the tear-off slip in leaflet DS 704 or by going online at www.dwp.gov.uk/eservice.