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PIP, working, housing benefits and council tax

Adilkha

Hi I have just received PIP....i just want to no if any 1 has got this and still go to work...how does it effect your housing benefit and council tax

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Comments

Alex

Hi Adilkha,

Welcome to the community.

I'm not an expert, however I know that PIP is not means tested - so you can earn money and still receive PIP. When you have an assessment they might take your work into account (for example if your job involves moving around, they might take it into account when looking at the mobility component).

As for your question about housing benefit and council tax - I'm not sure, so I've moved your question into our benefits advisor category, so hopefully they can help you in the area.

BenefitsTrainingCo

Hi Adilkha

I agree with what Alex said; PIP is not means-tested and you can work and receive PIP. Like Alex says the nature of the work could lead the DWP to query whether you qualify for PIP, particularly if the activities involved in doing the job are at odds with the activities you have claimed difficulty with.as a result of your illness or disability. A lot depends on how much work you do as well and if you have help or support to do the job so there are times when it's not clear cut. If you have any questions about this please post back on here.

For housing benefit and council tax support, PIP can only have a positive impact in that you may be entitled to receive more help so be sure to inform the local authority about your PIP award if and when you make a claim to those benefits. Similarly if you live in an area where you are still able to claim working tax credit, depending on your PIP award you may be entitled to more money or depending on your circumstances be required to work less hours in order to qualify.

A benefit calculation would help to illustrate these things and you can have a go at one here

I hope that helps

Best wishes

Paul

DHigh

When iam trying to do the benefit checker it's not letting me put our status as both have a disability can you tell me why.

Adilkha

I dont understand

BenefitsTrainingCo

Hi Adilkha,

As my colleague Paul says, yes you can work and get PIP. You should also tell your local council about your PIP award - getting PIP might mean you can get more help with council tax and housing benefit. It never means you get less.

If you work at least 16 hours, then you could claim Working Tax Credit as someone who gets PIP. In some areas though, that has been replaced by Universal Credit, so be careful, because if you're in one of those areas and you make a new benefit claim, your housing benefit would change to Universal Credit too, and it is not as generous. You can check whether you are in a Universal Credit area where disabled people can claim by putting your postcode into this tool.

DHigh, on the benefits checker, the first page 'about you' asks if you have a partner. If you do, it will ask about illness/disability for both of you, and it will also ask about employment status (eg if you are unable to work, again it will ask for both of you). Then on the page about disability, it will ask more questions, again for both of you, about ability to work and any disability benefits you already claim. It's quite long, so take it slowly. Hope that helps.

Will

Adilkha

Thanks....it has...am still a bit confused bout how many hours I can work before it effects my housing and council tax...but thanks anyway

BenefitsTrainingCo

Oh I see Adilkha, yes of course.

Housing benefit doesn't have an hours rule. It looks at your net earnings. Once your net earnings go over a set amount (which depends on your circumstances) you lose housing benefit (HB). You don't lose £1 of HB for every £1 you earn above the set amount, but you lose 65p.

For council tax, I can't tell you I'm afraid because it depends on your local authority, but it will work in a similar way except it probably won't be 65p (it's usually a smaller amount per £1 you earn over a certain level).

The calculator will help you to see what would happen if you worked, just put in your expected hours and earnings.

Will

Adilkha

Thanks now I understand

jamie1965

hi Adilkha I work part time and receive pip and housing and council tax benefits and working tax credits as I work 18 hours I’m not sure if your pip will affect the amount of housing benefits that you get but I do know they included mine into my monthly income this was the only time anyone did that if you get pip higher rate then you get extra working tax credits but only on the higher amount but if you work 30 hour not quite full time you get the 30 hour element of tax credit too but you would then have to pay for dentist prescription etc

BenefitsTrainingCo

jamie1965, thank you! Yes PIP will affect the calculations. It helps you to get working tax credit (WTC) as you say, and if you get the enhanced rate of PIP, extra WTC. It can also help you to get Housing Benefit, or to get more HB. The way it affects the calculations depends on the rate of PIP, but the general rule is that it can help you to get some or more benefit.

You can sometimes get free prescriptions etc if you also get working tax credit but it would depend on your annual income from work (before tax). Whilst some people would lose free prescriptions at 30 hours, not everyone will. The threshold is currently £15,276. You would still be under that at minimum wage for 30 hours, but it's definitely something to bear in mind if you are on a better wage - so, Adilkha, it would be worth working out what your taxable income is in work (before tax and NI) for a tax year. This can vary because not everyone starts a job at the beginning of a tax year! But you can at least get an idea.

The threshold usually changes each year. If you're entitled to help, you should get an NHS tax credit exemption certificate.

Will

abz

If your claiming PIP and ESA are you intitled to housing benefit aswel...

toddharrison

I was just awarded PIP and less than 3 weeks later had a letter from the Local Authority notifying us that they're cutting our Housing Benefit because I am now receiving PIP.

And what's worse, they cut our Housing Benefit more than the amount I'm actually getting on PIP, so we're at a net loss in our monthly income now.

anny64

I get enhanced rate pip I work 20 hours a week on a severe disability element mental health ,I get a rebate for housing I don’t pay council tax due to severely mentally impaired due to mental health condition being ongoing for years ,oh thay do not include your pip or disabled element when working out rebate but do ask about savings I think over 6000 hope this helps

Activist

toddharrison said:

I was just awarded PIP and less than 3 weeks later had a letter from the Local Authority notifying us that they're cutting our Housing Benefit because I am now receiving PIP.

And what's worse, they cut our Housing Benefit more than the amount I'm actually getting on PIP, so we're at a net loss in our monthly income now.

Activist

How can they cut your council tax benefit as pip is non means tested

Yadnad

Whilst PIP is not means tested the problem arises when because of PIP other benefits go up - ESA IR is one.
If this is the case then you will get more ESA because of PIP but as the increase IS used to calculate HB - the HB will go down.
When claiming any means tested benefits you cannot have more money than the state says you need to live on.

This is the same for all means tested benefits. Take someone who is retired and gets the state pension as well as pension credit.
Every year the pension goes up so the amount of pension credit will come down.

poppy123456

This is an old thread but just incase someone reads this. An increase of Income related ESA will not make a housing benefit award decrease.

" not having anymore than the state says you need to live on" otherwise known as the benefit cap. For those claiming PIP/DLA/AA they are excluded from the benefits cap. https://www.gov.uk/benefit-cap/when-youre-not-affected

Yadnad

poppy123456 said:

This is an old thread but just incase someone reads this. An increase of Income related ESA will not make a housing benefit award decrease.

" not having anymore than the state says you need to live on" otherwise known as the benefit cap. For those claiming PIP/DLA/AA they are excluded from the benefits cap. https://www.gov.uk/benefit-cap/when-youre-not-affected

Sorry yes you are right - I forgot that the cap would be removed.

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