Hi, my name is EmmaHuggz!

EmmaHuggz

Hi - my name is Emma and i am a Shared Lives carer. I have supported a young man since August last year, and now, he wants to move in here permanently, which we are all happy about. The only thing stopping him, is his income. He only gets about £100 a week DLA - and he would have to pay a contribution of £11.31 per night to live here, this would swallow all his money - is there anything else at all that he could claim? It's very annoying as he needs this desperately, to go on and lead a fulfilling and independent life - but the money is holding it up - we know about housing benefit, it's just his personal allowance that's so foggy - any advice would be appreciated - thanks

Debbie_Alumni

Hi EmmaHuggz,

Welcome to the community

Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) is an income replacement benefit for people who can't work due to illness or disability. It would certainly increase his income. You mention that his only income is DLA, so can I assume he's not working and not claiming any other benefits?
If he's not already claiming ESA, the following link will take you to information about ESA on the government website and details of how to claim. https://www.gov.uk/employment-support-allowance/overview

You could also run the benefits calculator on our website and this will highlight any potential entitlements he may have. http://www.scope.org.uk/support/disabled-people/check-benefits. It can be a bit tricky to work everything out because benefits impact on other benefits and also on social care.
If you get stuck, get in touch and I'll try and talk you through it.

From what you've said in your post it doesn't sound like he's getting everything he should be.

Hope this helps

Best wishes
Debbie

EmmaHuggz

Thank you very much for the speedy response - i have tried to do it, and think i've got somewhere, but i will hand over all this info to his Social Worker to try and fathom out whether he is entitled - thanks again, great service you give