Not unrelated to the DLA review. Many also claim Incapacity Benefit. This raised other issues. The emails I get are mentioning this subject also. Here is what I understand. Please feel free to email or comment if I have any issue wrong or with your experience.
Disability Living Allowance/Other Benefits
If you receive other benefits where the amount you recieve is dependant on the level of DLA you get. I can only assume that these benefits levels may be lost or reduced depending on the level of DLA you will get post your review. You have a legal duty to declare on forms sent to you to ensure your information is up to date. Check with your Solicitor/Welfare Advisor/Social Worker for clarity.
Incapacity Benefit
The Welfare Reform Act 2007 comes into force later this year. They are replacing Incapacity Benefit, Jobseekers Allowance & Income Support with the “Employment & Support Allowance”. As far as I can gather. I have just started reading the explanatory notes before tackling the act. Those applying will get a basic allowance. Following an assessment period (13 Weeks max.). You are then awarded either a work supplement which will require you to engage in activity towards finding a job. Or you will be awarded the support supplement. The support supplement will not place a duty on you to engage in the "seeking work conditions" of the work component. Though the support supplement will be reviewed yearly.
Many I know are being called in to reassess their Incapacity Benefit. They get the forms fill them in. Have an interview at the job centre & may have to undergo a medical examination by a DWP medic. This assessment I gather is so that when the new benefit package comes online. All existing claimants have been assessed and then transferred to the relevant core benefit & appropriate supplement. Clearly to assess 1.2 million claims within the first 13 weeks of the new benefit going live would result in chaos.
Also, the Benefit Integrity project is looking at Incapacity Benefit to ensure it is going to the right people.
Job Centre interview
When you get the letter this can cause anxiety. However the interview is mainly to introduce you to the services that the Job Centre can offer IF you decide in the future to try and get back into work.
It is not as daunting it seems. They really are just trying to be supportive and will not (in my experience) place you under any pressure. They are just offering you help.
Interviews are often held in the "open plan" office. You can ask to been seen in a less public space if you need to discuss your HIV. In my experience they are only to happy to do this. In the last case where I accompanied someone. When I mentioned that if the conversation required a discussion of medical issues it would have to be in private. The case officer said he was aware of the medical condition & there was no need to further discuss it.
Medical
You maybe asked to go to a medical. Just be very frank with the medic. Remember the fact you may be having a "good day" and thus there. Is not indicitive of what a "bad day" is. They will understand this. They will usually talk about the information you have written on the form. In my experience they are very sympathetic.
If you are worried & need advice please seek professional advice from your Solicitor/Welfare worker/Social Services/Citizen Advice Bureau.
PDF version
anonymous said....
I've been doing my sums with regard to HIV benefits as they stand for me.
Monthly payments: benefit income
DLA (less cost of car) £258.00
Incapacity £393.80
Income Support £186.80
total £838.60
Monthly Essential bills: Out goings
Mortgage + utility bills
£600.00+
(This amount constantly changes with gas, electric & water, building, contents & car insurance, telephone, council taxes annual increases.
That leaves £238.60 PM
(or £ 59.65 A WEEK)
Food & vitimens +/-£50.00 PW
That leaves............£ 9.65 PW to LIVE on.
I am FORCED to depend on a credit card for anything else that I may need as I have been in the RED with my over draft since the mid
90's. I CAN ONLY EVER AFFORD THE MINIMUM PAYMENTS ON THE CREDIT CARD by paying with my overdraft, it never goes above -£600 every month. I have to rely on my partner to supply anything else that I may need. I'M VERY LUCKY TO HAVE AN UNDERSTANDING NEGATIVE PARTNER!
I must stress though that my partner barely earns enough himself to pay his half of the bills.
WITH THE LOSS OF THE DLA WILL I BE BELOW THE POVERTY LINE?......
I know going back to work would be IDEAL just to get out of the house for a start. BUT that takes a lot of effort due to the medication side effects listed below.
At my age & with much more than a decade of NO work experience, suffer medication side effects, who would want to employ me & pay me enough to get me out of this trap. God knows I have tried.
To be blunt, how do you explain to an employer why you are spending so much time running back & forth to the toilet every five minutes suffering acute stomach cramps, diarrhoea, tiredness & sickness that occur about an hour to two hours after medication is taken.
I take all my six tablets in the morning (only with cereal as anything else makes the side effects UNBEARABLE!) If I take them at night I certainly don't want to have to suffer the effects in time for bed which means horrible 'accidents', horrendous nights of nightmares, restless sleep & resulting in a very bad nights sleep SO OBVIOUSLY not able to function the next morning very well as the medication starts to wear off during the course of 12 hours NOT a very good place to be in an employment situation.
If you had a choice of two applications for a job in front of you one me & another less capable & younger but healthy, who would you choose?
john said....
Thanks for this. I try and explain the situation on the 1st page of the website.
However you cannot beat real experience.
Ta,
John.
Integrity Benefity Office
A letter from Chelmsford Integrity Benefit Office with a prepaid envelope and form to send back has arrived today asking for update of my circumstances. What's all this about? My own IB office is in At Austell
Benefit Integrity Office
The DWP is a large organisation with many offices undertaking slightly different tasks. Your main office maybe St. Austell but Chelmsford maybe responsible for checking existing applications. On your letter you should have a contact number. If you are in any doubt call them and ask.
The DWP regularly undertakes random samples of benefit claims to check they are correct.
I too received the same
I too received the same letter from Chelmsford Benefits Integrity Centre even though my benefits office is St Austell. I too thought what is all this about? I had read on other blogs that there was a scam to try and get people's details, as there was no phone number etc it seemed suspicious. I phoned St Austell and they confirmed that the form had been raised by them and sent out by Chelmsford.... hence it was genuine and I had no choice but to fill it in with some dread- what is going on?
Benefit Integrity Centre
I contacted DWP (Incapacity Benefit) as I too had had the letter from the Benefit Integrity Centre at Chelmsford, I had not received the booklet meant to accompany the letter that supposedly outlines what needs to be reported. I am a 'retired on health grounds. Civil Servant with much experience of the benefits system. I was very reluctantly given some info by phone. Incapacity Benefit may be reduced if you have a pension/superannuation etc. Your weekly "pension" will be considered as follows - The first £85 will be disregarded. 50% of anything over £85 will be deducted from your Incapacity Benefit.
I did ask for the particulars of "The Act" and any ammendments pertaining to this but the person I spoke couldnt give me this info ! I will look at the Social Security Contributions and Benefits Act 1992 and subsequent ammendments when I am able and will come back with any findings.
Just how reliable this information is I am not sure until I receive the missing paperwork or anything else the geign to send me !
Apparently this ruling may also apply to SDA.
Like most people, I struggle to make ends meet though I recognise there are many more who are worse off than me. If this information is 100% correct and the reduction occurs overnight, I can only say Im glad I have still got my old tent as I may end up living in it !
Chelmsford Integrity Office
I recently completed a form sent to myself off the Chelmsford Job Centre Plus Integrity Office, requesting written information regarding my benefit payments. It amazes me they have spent multi millions on improving their IT systems to ask their client to inform them of their level of benefit.
My local JCP Office hold all my historical and current benefit records. Surely Chelmsford could communicate with my local office ? At a time of savings and austerity a third party office enters the system and for what purpose ?
What is the meaning and function of a Integrity Office ? Could somebody tell me ?
Chelmsford Integrity Office reply
Your benefit records will be held on a computer system that is accessed by many branches of the DWP including your local JCP. The Benefit Integrity Office can be useful in identifying benefits that you may not be recieving but would be able to claim. Also it is a "checking service". Part of asking you what benefits you get it a check to ensure there records are correct. In these days were there is "id theft". If your records show more benefits being paid to you than you say you claim that would clearly raise a problem.
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