Benefits

Jensine

Hi it is highly likely that I will have to stop working because of a disability I have . It's called Charcot foot (Charcot Neuropathy)it is a disease mainly associated with people who have Diabetes and they tend not to feel pain, however I don't have Diabetes so I'm suffering a great deal of pain which is limiting my mobility quite quickly so I will likely have to stop working ( I  am a registered nurse) I need to find out what benefits i may be entitled to claim for stopping work and also for cutting down on the hours I work ..I find it very confusing and I need to act quickly in order to save my foot from a very real risk of amputation because i am making it worse by walking on it ...I would appreciate your help please.

 

Neil2017

Hi @Jensine
welcome to the forum and good to meet you on here. 

There are two main benefits for people of working age or non retired and with disabilities or health conditions that effect you working. Employment and Support Allowance or ESA for short and Personal Independence Payment or PIP. ESA is like an unemployment benefit and is for day to day living costs like food and energy bills.

PIP is for additional costs like mobility in getting around or care if you needed to make adaptations to your home or towards a carer or support worker if you needed someone do cleaning, etc

You may also be able to get housing benefit if you are renting where you live.

in some areas some of these benefits are gradually being rolled into one benefit called a Universal Credit.

The esa and pip you usually fill in forms and then have assessments by companies working for DWP

have s look around the Scope website for more information on benefits.

BenefitsTrainingCo

Jensine,

As Neil says, ESA is the main benefit for people under pension age who can't work, and PIP is a benefit which can help you with extra costs you may face.

ESA may also depend on your national insurance contributions. If you can't get it based on these, then you might be looking at either income-related ESA, or Universal Credit. 

Housing Benefit can help with rent, but Universal Credit also replaces Housing Benefit. Whether you have to claim UC will depend on where you live and all your other circumstances, so please don't claim it without checking.

PIP is not being replaced by UC. Council tax reduction (help with the council tax) may also apply. 

I would start with the benefits calculator and then put in the information you have at the moment. For example, you could try it first with a reduced number of hours at work, and then if you have to stop work completely.

Then come back to us if you have more questions.

Will