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A disability element is payable in Working Tax Credit if you:
- claim a qualifying benefit or meet the Fast-Track rules, and
- work more than 16 hours a week, and
- satisfy the 'work disadvantage' test.
Qualifying benefits
To meet the 'qualifying benefit' test you must be receiving one of the following benefits:
- Disability Living Allowance
- Attendance Allowance
- Industrial Injuries Disablement Benefit with Constant Attendance Allowance or mobility supplement for you
- War Disablement Pension with Constant Attendance Allowance or mobility supplement for you
- A vehicle provided under the Invalid Vehicle Scheme
Or you must have received one of the following benefits for at least one day in the last six months:
- Incapacity Benefit at the short-term higher rate or long-term rate
- Severe Disablement Allowance
-
Income Support or Income-based Jobseeker’s Allowance with a disability premium
for you
- Council Tax Benefit or Housing Benefit with a disability premium
You can also meet the qualifying benefit test if you have been training for
work for at least one day in the last 8 weeks and you started training for work
within 8 weeks of receiving either Incapacity Benefit paid at the short-term
higher rate or the long-term rate or Severe Disablement Allowance.
The Fast-Track rules
You are also classed as passing the 'qualifying benefit' test if you are
eligible to apply for Working Tax Credit through the Fast-Track rules.
The Working Tax Credit Fast-Track rules help people who become sick or disabled
while in work. To qualify you must meet all of the following conditions:
* Have recently become sick or disabled.
* Received for twenty weeks or more (with the last day of receipt falling
within the last eight weeks) one of the following benefits:
- Statutory Sick Pay,
- Occupational Sick Pay,
- Incapacity Benefit paid at the short-term lower rate,
- Income Support paid on the grounds of incapacity for work,
- National Insurance credits awarded on the grounds of incapacity for work.
* Have a disability that is likely to put you at a disadvantage in getting a
job for at least six months.
* Have gross earnings that are at least 20% less than they were before the
disability began, with a minimum reduction of £15.00 (gross) per week.
Note. The 20 weeks need not be a single continuous period: it can be
made up of any periods of receipt which are separated by eight weeks or less.
Any such periods can be linked together to satisfy the 20 weeks condition.
Work disadvantage test
To meet the work disadvantage test you must meet one of the following
criteria.
1. When standing you cannot keep your balance unless you continually hold onto
something.
2. Using any crutches, walking frame, walking stick, prosthesis or similar
walking aid which you normally use, you cannot walk a continuous distance of
100 metres along level ground without stopping or without suffering severe
pain.
3. You can use neither of your hands behind your back as in the process of
putting on a jacket or of tucking a shirt into trousers.
4. You can extend neither of your arms in front of you so as to shake hands
with another person without difficulty.
5. You can put neither of your hands up to your head without difficulty so as
to put on a hat.
6. Due to lack of manual dexterity you cannot, with one hand, pick up a coin
which is not more than 2.5 centimetres in diameter.
7. You are not able to use your hands or arms to pick up a full jug of 1 litre
capacity and pour from it into a cup, without difficulty.
8. You can turn neither of your hands sideways through 180 degrees.
9. You are registered as blind or registered as partially sighted in a
register compiled by a local authority.
10. You cannot see to read 16 point print at a distance greater than 20
centimetres, if appropriate, wearing the glasses you normally use.
11. You cannot hear a telephone ring when you are in the same room as the
telephone, if appropriate, using a hearing aid you normally use.
12. In a quiet room you have difficulty in hearing what someone talking in a
loud voice at a distance of 2 metres says, if appropriate, using a hearing aid
you normally use.
13. People who know you well have difficulty in understanding what you say.
14. When a person you know well speaks to you, you have difficulty in
understanding what that person says.
15. At least once a year during waking hours you are in a coma or have a fit in
which you lose consciousness.
16. You have a mental illness for which you receive regular treatment under the
supervision of a medically qualified person.
17. Due to mental disability you are often confused or forgetful.
18. You cannot do the simplest addition and subtraction.
19. Due to mental disability you strike people or damage property or are unable
to form normal social relationships.
20. You cannot normally sustain an 8 hour working day or a 5 day working week
due to a medical condition or intermittent or continuous severe pain.
21. As a result of an illness or accident you are undergoing a period of
rehabilitation or rehabilitation. This cannot apply to you if you have been
getting Disabled Person's Tax Credit or the disability element of Working Tax
Credit in the past 2 years.
HM Customs and Revenue may ask you to nominate a professional involved in your
care who can confirm how your disability affects you - for example, an
occupational therapist, community or district nurse or doctor.
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