Care and support

Are you ill or disabled?

If you are incapable of working because of ill-health or disability, you should claim incapacity benefit for young people (IBY), which might be topped up by income support.

Note – anyone claiming after October 27th 2008 will claim the new Employment and 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) 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. For IBY full time education is 21 hours a week 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.

It can be very difficult to work out whether a person who is on IBY 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, some disabled young people will not have an automatic right to free prescriptions and other health benefits. They may still qualify on the grounds of low income, or because of their medical condition however. In addition, if you are getting IBY 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 and/or income support in your own right, your parents can no longer claim child benefit or child tax credit for you.

Disability living allowance

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

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.

How to claim DLA

DLA can be claimed by telephoning the Freephone number : 0800 882 200, or by completing the tear-off slip in leaflet DS 704.