What can we claim in benefits while off sick from work

Juelsc

Hi 
Im off sick from work, all i will get from my employer is ssp. My husband is disabled.and receives enhanced rate care and mobility, plus esa. We need to know what other financial assistance we can get other than council tax benefit and housing benefit.

Sam_Alumni

Hi @Juelsc welcome to the community, our benefits advisors arent online all the time, but I hope they will be about soon.

We do have a benefits calculator here that you can use to see what you may be entitled to.

BenefitsTrainingCo

Hi Juelsc,

So, you're on SSP, and your husband is on ESA (I'm guessing maybe in the support group?)  - plus either PIP or DLA, not sure which from your description.

Make sure the local authority know about your changed circumstances as you are probably entitled to more help whilst you are on SSP only.

You may also be entitled to claim either:

• income support if you make the claim OR
• income-related ESA (on top of any contributory ESA) for your husband. If he is already getting some income-related ESA, it may need to be increased because you have less income. If he isn't, he could start getting it. This isn't a new claim, it's part of his existing ESA claim.

I would check before you claim anything whether Universal Credit has started in your area and in your circumstances. If it has, then any new claim for income support will switch you to Universal Credit instead, which is likely to be less money (and will replace your housing benefit too).

I would recommend in that case that your husband gets or increases income-related ESA instead. That's because it's not a new claim - it's a change of circumstances in the ESA claim he already has & therefore he should NOT claim Universal Credit.

If Universal Credit hasn't started for your circumstances in your postcode area, then you will be better off on Income Support than on income-related ESA. That is because Income Support includes extra help which is more than the amounts in income-related ESA.

If you get either Income Support or income-related ESA make sure you tell the local authority as you should then get maximum housing benefit. 

As you probably know, SSP lasts for 28 weeks. If you think you are going to be sick for longer than that, please do come back for more advice.

Will