Advice on benefits

debs53

Hi all. I'm being dismissed from work the 8/2 due to ill health.. I'm on UC and lcwra element.. my ssp will run out after the next 4weeks. Is there anything else I can claim. I privately rent a house which takes up most my monthly income.. I'm trying to get a council flat to help with cost 

poppy123456

Unless you live in Scotland you can look at claiming PIP (ADP is Scotland). It's a disability benefit but whether there's any entitlement will depend on how your conditions affect you. It's not awarded based on any diagnosis, or your ability to work. Some information in the links provided here.

https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/Global/Migrated_Documents/adviceguide/pip-9-table-of-activities-descriptors-and-points.pdf

https://www.benefitsandwork.co.uk/personal-independence-payment-pip

There's also council tax reduction which can be claimed from your local Authority.

New style ESA if you have the correct NI contributions in tax years 2021/22 and 2022/23. However, you won't be financially better off by claiming it because it's deducted in full from any UC entitlement. You can claim it now but you won't receive any payments until your SSP has ended.

Although you won't be financially better off it's still worth while claiming it if entitled to it. It's not means tested like UC so can be useful in the future perhaps.

Other than that i'm afraid there's no other benefits.

debs53

Thank you.. silly question what does means tested mean?

poppy123456

It's not a silly question at all. It means that savings/capital of more than £6,000 will affect the amount of UC you're entitled to. For savings of more than £16,000 there's no entitlement to any means tested benefits. Weekly/month income from a pension will also affect UC and reduce it £1 for £1.

For New style ESA because it's not means tested then you can have all of those and it will make no difference to the amount you're entitled to. With the exception of a pension, anything up to £85/week is ignored. For every £1 over that amount your ESA is reduced by 50p/week.

debs53

Thank you again. I'll look into the ESA