|
||||||||||||||||
|
INCOME SUPPORT
Income Support (I.S.) is a means tested benefit for people who, due to their circumstances, are unavailable for work. It is intended to guarantee people the minimum level of income they need in order to survive. This minimum level of income is called the 'applicable amount'. I.S. can be paid in full should a client not have any other form of income, or used to top up the income which the client already has. The applicable amount is composed of a personal allowance, and premiums, which may be payable depending on the clients circumstances. The application form for I.S. is called an A1. From April 2004, I.S. ceased to pay for dependant children within a clients household. Therefore, I.S. no longer takes into account benefits paid in respect of children (e.g. Child Benefit & Child Tax Credit). I.S. customers are required to claim Tax Credits in order to support their children. I.S. is normally paid in arrears, apart from those who are in receipt of a Bereavement Allowance. CONDITIONS OF ENTITLEMENT
CLIENT GROUPS Sickness/Disability - You must have claimed or be in receipt of Incapacity Benefit or Severe Disablement Allowance (Unless you qualify for the care component at the highest rate of DLA). Carers - You must either have an undecided claim registered with C.A, or be in receipt of C.A. (There are special rules when you can qualify for temporarily caring for a close family member). Lone Parents - Must be in receipt of Child Benefit for a dependant child. Pregnancy - You are pregnant and incapable of work because of your pregnancy and be within 11 weeks of giving birth*. Bereavement - You are aged less than 60, you were aged at least 55 on 09/04/01, your spouse died on or after that date and you claim I.S. for yourself as a single person. Education and Training - If you are aged under 18 and living away from your parents out of necessity, you could be entitled to I.S. assuming that you are still treated as being in full-time education. *If you are claiming due to being within 11 weeks of giving birth, but would have no usual grounds to claim I.S. after this, you can receive payments for 15 weeks after the birth assuming that you still fulfil the conditions of entitlement. EVIDENCE REQUIREMENTS Evidence Requirements (ER) is the information that the A1 claim form requests. ER basically consists of the following:
PREMIUMS Premiums are components of I.S. that go towards forming a clients applicable amount. Premiums may be awarded to a client when they satisfy the conditions of eligibility to a particular premium. These conditions could involve being in receipt of a passporting benefit which leads to entitlement of a premium (e.g. to receive the Carer Premium, you have to be in receipt of Carers Allowance). DISABILITY PREMIUM This is awarded when a person has been registered as ill for 365 days or is in receipt of either component of DLA, at any rate. ENHANCED DISABILITY PREMIUM Awarded to people who are in receipt of the highest rate of the care component on DLA. SEVERE DISABILITY PREMIUM This is paid to people who receive either the Middle or highest rate on the DLA care component and you technically count as living alone* and no one receives CA in respect of caring for the person. CARER PREMIUM Awarded to anyone who is in receipt of C.A, or has underlying entitlement. *For I.S. purposes, the following people can be disregarded when considering if a person is living alone.
CAPITAL For every £250.00 (or part of £250.00) over £6,000.00, £1.00 is deducted from your I.S. entitlement. This is called 'Tariff Income'. If your savings exceed £16,000.00 your entitlement will end. EARNINGS FROM EMPLOYMENT Part time earnings are taken into account in the following way. Before any disregards can be applied, a net figure will be calculated. Only NI contributions, Tax, and half of the deductions from a pension can be taken off the gross figure. The disregard applied to Part time earnings depends upon personal circumstances.
CHILD MINDERS Special rules apply to the earnings of registered child minders. After the NI contributions and Tax have been deducted, a disregard of 2/3rds is applied. The normal disregard for wages is then taken off (as stated above). It doesn't matter how many hours per week a child minder works. MORTGAGES I.S only covers interest on mortgages used:
If your loan is covered by I.S, an amount is added to your applicable amount. This amount is not paid to you but is deducted from your benefit and paid 4-weekly in arrears directly to your lender if they are part of the mortgage direct scheme. Once the amount of capital outstanding on your eligible loan has been established, the interest to be included in your I.S applicable amount is calculated on that capital using, in most cases, a standard interest rate. The rate is set with reference to the Bank of England base rate plus 1.58%. The standard interest rate is applied in all cases, with one exception. Where your actual interest rate is less than 5% on the day your housing costs are first included in your IS applicable amount, it is your actual interest rate on that day that is applied. Changes in actual interest rate are ignored until it increases to at least 5%. The standard interest rate will be applied in the following benefit week and any further increases or reductions in the actual interest rate are ignored. Thus, you may end up getting more from I.S., or less, than the mortgage interest you are due to pay. Arrears of interest cannot be met. In most cases there is a waiting period from the start of your I.S. entitlement before housing costs are included in your applicable amount. Generally, the length of the waiting period depends on whether you took out your mortgage or other housing costs before or after 02/10/95. In some cases, if you are not entitled to I.S. because your income or capital is over the limit, there is a chance that the waiting period can begin from when you made the claim. NO WAITING PERIOD Your partner is aged 60 or over - Eligible housing costs are included in your applicable amount from the beginning of your I.S. entitlement. Or from the day your partner reaches 60 if you are part way through the waiting period. Similarly, there is no waiting period for housing costs to be included in Pension Credit. 8 TO 26 WEEK WAITING PERIOD Housing costs agreements made before 02/10/95 - If your loan or other housing costs arose under an agreement made before 02/10/95, your housing costs are included in your I.S applicable amount as follows. If you've been continuously entitled to I.S. for:
39 WEEK WAITING PERIOD If your loan or other housing costs arose under an agreement made on or after 02/10/95, 100% of assessed housing costs are included in your applicable amount after you have been continuously entitled to IS for 39 weeks. You get no help with housing costs for the first 39 weeks of your claim. But if you come under one of the special circumstances above at the time you claim I.S., the 8 - 26 week waiting period applies instead. You will not have to serve the waiting period again if your have a break in your claim of 12 weeks or less, or your claims can be linked under one of the special rules described above. BACKDATING It is possible to have your I.S. backdated for up to 3 months prior to your initial date of contact. The success of your backdating will depend upon the reasons you give as to why you didn't claim earlier. If a claim to benefit is made within 1 month of a separation or bereavement (of a spouse), and a backdating request is received, the claim will automatically be backdated to the date of separation/bereavement. If backdating is requested after the I.S. has been put into payment, the customer would have to complete another A1 claim form in respect of the period they want to claim for. INCOME SUPPORT RATES Personal Allowances Single
Lone parent
Couple
PREMIUMS Carer - £27.75
Enhanced Disability:
Severe Disability - £50.35 (per qualifying person) |
