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What is it?
Income support is paid to certain people who are not expected to look for work. These include carers and certain lone parents. It is intended to provide for basic living expenses and can be paid on top of other benefits such as carer's allowance. You can also get money to help with mortgage payments.
Can I claim Income Support?
Only certain people are allowed to claim income support. You may be able to get IS if you are:
- entitled to statutory sick pay (SSP)
- appealing against a decision that you are capable of work following a personal capability assessment (PCA).
- caring for someone and either you are getting carer's allowance, or the person you are looking after gets attendance allowance (AA) or constant attendance allowance, or the middle or highest rate of disability living allowance (DLA) care component.
- You are a lone parent and responsible for a child under 7 (under 5 from 21st May, 2012).
- pregnant and incapable of work because of your pregnancy or due to have your baby within the next 11 weeks or have had a baby within the last 15 weeks.
Incapable of work changes
Before the introduction of employment and support allowance (ESA) on 27 October 2008 you could get income support if you were sick/disabled and unable to work. Existing claimants remain on the income support for the present but will begin to be transferred over to ESA from October 2010.
At some point between October 2010 and March 2014, if you are on income support because of sickness or disability, you will be reassessed under the new Work Capability Assessment instead of the personal capability assessment. If you are found to have a limited capability for work in this assessment, you will be moved (migrated) onto ESA. For more information on income support migration see Moving from IS to ESA.
New claimants will need to claim for Jobseeker's Allowance or Employment and Support Allowance, if they do not fit into one of the catorgories listed under 'Can I claim Income Support?' shown above.
For more information on Jobseekers's Allowance and Employment and Support Allowance see information on Jobseeker's Allowance and information on Employment and Support Allowance.
You can get Income Support as well as some other benefits.
The rules about Income Support are complicated, please contact the Jobcentre Plus to find out more on 0800 055 6688, lines are open from 8.00 am to 6.00 pm, Monday to Friday.
How much can I get?
The amount of Income Support you can get is made up of three different parts:
- personal allowances
- premiums
- payments to cover certain housing costs
The personal allowance amounts from April 2012 are shown below:
Personal Allowances
SINGLE 16-24 - £56.25
SINGLE 25 and over - £71.00
LONE PARENT (under 18) - £56.25
LONE PARENT 18 and over - £71.00
COUPLE both 18 and over - £111.45
How do I claim?
Income Support is administered by JobCentre Plus. To claim call 0800 055 6688 (8am - 6pm Monday to Friday). A textphone service is available on 0800 023 4888. Alternatively you can claim online using the Department for Work and Pension's.
Other entitlements if you are awarded Income Support
Getting Income Support may entitle you to other types of benefit:
- free prescriptions and dental treatment,
- housing grants,
- help from the social fund,
- free school meals,
- help with hospital fares.
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