Advice needed on Income Support

[Sarah]

I am currently on income support due to a health issue but I also look after my 24 year old brother 24/7. My brother gets high rate mobility and middle rate care. I was wondering if I could claim careres allowance for my brother and officially become his carer, but one thing I'm not sure about is how my own benefit would be affected due to ill health issue and apply for carers allowance.

Any advice and information would be very much appreciated.

[James]

You can make a local application at your nearest council center and they should be able to help you. To see weather your benefit would be affected by taking you brother on as a carer.

[annie2059]

You can call your local DADS office and inquire on that. I don't know if the name is the same for your local agency Dept. of Aged and Disabled Services they are the ones who do assessments and submit for provider services. You can inquire about the steps on being your brothers provider. if they don't know ask them to refer you to an agency that can answer your questions.
Ana

[Jack]

Although I don't know in person, but this government web site might has what you need, hope it's helpful.
http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/DisabledPeople/FinancialSupport/index.htm

[Lisa]

I hope it goes well for you Sarah.

You have all the help and support from us, calling your local DADS office will help to know where you need to go next and take the next step on your income support application.

We hope you all the best Sarah and Good Luck!

[whenigrowup]

Hi Sarah,

if you are are in recipt of income support you would be eligible for the carer premium which equates to £29.50 per week. However, you need to take into consideration that if you claim this it may affect your brothers benefits - for example if he currently receives a Severe Disability premium, he may no longer be entitled to this and overall you could end up worse off.

Best thing to do is seek some advice before claiming. You need a benefits check, where are you located? Most councils should have this type of welfare rights service, if you contact them they should be able to help you. Council contacts can be found here, along with a lot of additional information on benefit entitlements: http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/Dl1/Directories/index.htm

Iona

[treborc]

It's difficult because income support is means tested , the best place to go in the UK would be the CAB, they can give you a benefits review explaining what you can get and cannot get.

It's free it's private.

[Sarah]

Thanks for the help guys, and for the links to the income support websites, i will check everything out and look more into the carer premium. Thank you all for helping me

You guys are fantastic!

[ralph123]

I'm in the US, so I don't have a clue what your talking about. I've been fired and forced to get a disability designation. Can you help me to find a way to survive? I'm getting a tiny "benefit", but it is definitely too small to live on. Do you have any suggestions?

[alycorn]

Ralph,
Have you applied for social security disability yet? It's not much, but it's something. Also, if you take public transportation, you should be eligible for a disabled discount - usually it's around 50% off the usual cost (that's been a lifesaver for me because I can't drive)
There's also medicaid and medicare, which will take care of your insurance needs once the paperwork for your SSDI is through, so you won't need to pay for COBRA or any of that.
Food stamps helps too - under disability the ownership of one car and one house are not considered as assets. Pretty much everything else that can be easily converted into money is, though.
Most everything to help the poor is taking a huge hit though because of the economy - if there's anything else you're trying to figure out, feel free to add it!