Income support

Income Support is a means-tested benefit payable to certain people on a low income. It is designed to bring an applicants income up to a minimum level to cover their basic living expenses.

Income Support does not depend on National Insurance contributions and can be paid on its own or with a combination of other benefits.  You may be eligible to receive Income Support if you are single, or you can put in a joint claim if you have a partner. It can also help with mortgage interest costs but usually only after a waiting period.

Who can claim Income Support?

To qualify for Income Support you must: (a) satisfy a number of  basic conditions, (b) fit into one of the categories of people who are classed as eligible to receive the benefit and (c) your income and savings must be below a certain amount which depends on your circumstances. 

People who were sick or disabled used to be able to claim Income Support, but this route to claiming has been replaced by Employment and Support Allowance. No new claims can be made for Income Support on the basis of sickness or disability. Some people who were getting Income Support on this basis before the introduction of Employment and Support Allowance are still being paid Income Support. The government plans to transfer them off Income Support between October 2010 and March 2014. 

(a) Qualifying conditions

• You must be resident in Great Britain.
• You must be aged between 16 and state retirement age (Note: Pension Credit Guarantee is a similar benefit to Income Support and is available to both men and women once they reach state retirement age for women).
• You are not a full-time student, although there are some exceptions to this rule, most notably for lone parents.
• Your capital and savings (or your and your partners capital and savings, if part of a joint claim) cannot exceed £16,000.
• You are not in paid work for more than 16 hours per week or your partner, if you have one, is not in paid work of more than 24 hours per week. If you qualify for Income Support as a carer it is possible this condition can be waived.

(b) Eligibility categories

In addition to the above conditions of entitlement to qualify for Income Support you must also fall into one of the categories of people eligible to claim.  In general terms these are:

• If you are a carer. To qualify as a carer you need to be caring for someone who gets Disability Living Allowance middle or high rate care, or Attendance Allowance. You can also claim if the person you care for has claimed and is waiting for a decision on either of these benefits.
  
• As a lone parent responsible for a child under the age of 10. (this age is being reduced to 7 on 25 October 2010 and will decrease steadily after that in the following years). Some lone parents receiving Income Support get payments for their children as part of the benefit but this is gradually being phased out to be replaced by Child Tax Credit.
• If you are pregnant and your baby is expected within 11 weeks of the date of claim.

(c) Income

If one or more of the above criteria applies to you, then you may potentially be entitled to receive Income Support.  In addition though, you must have income below your applicable amount which is explained in more detail below. How your income is calculated is also looked at in further detail later on.

How is Income Support calculated?

To calculate Income Support you initially need to calculate your applicable amount. An applicable amount is the weekly minimum amount the Department of Works and Pensions considers a person needs to live on to cover their basic living expenses. An applicable amount consists of three elements,  personal allowances, premiums and some housing costs.

1. A personal allowance consists of a flat rate amount for you and your partner if you have one.  It does not now include amounts for children as these are being replaced by Child Tax Credits.  Personal Allowances for the financial year 2010-2011 are:

• Single Person aged under 25: £51.85 per week
• Single Person aged 25 or over: £65.45 per week
• Couples, both aged under 18: £51.85 per week
• Couples aged 18 or over: £102.75 per week

Note: Different rates of the Couples allowance can be paid if one member is under 18 and the other older. In some circumstances a higher rate can be paid for couples below 18 as well.

2. Premiums are also flat rate amounts which are added to your personal allowance and are designed to cover additional expenses you may have. It is possible to receive more than one premium.  The premiums are:

• The Disability Premium You will be awarded the disability premium if you, or your partner (if part of a joint claim) receive any rate of Disability Living Allowance, Attendance Allowance, Long Term Incapacity Benefit, are registered as blind or have been incapable of work for the previous 52 weeks. It is currently £28 per week for a single person or £39.85 for couples.
  
  
• The Severe Disability Premium You will be awarded this premium if you receive either Attendance Allowance or the middle or higher rate care component of Disability Living Allowance, and you live alone and no one receives Carers Allowance for looking after you. It can be paid at a couple rate if both you and your partner receive the above rates of Disability Living Allowance or Attendance Allowance. The single rate is currently £53.65 and the couple rate £107.30 per week.
  
  
• The Enhanced Disability Premium You will be awarded this premium if you or your partner receive the highest rate care component of Disability Living Allowance. The current rates are £13.65 per week for a single person or £19.65 per week for couples.
  
  
• The Carers Premium You will be awarded the Carers Premium if you or your partner either receive Carers Allowance or are entitled to it but cannot receive payment of because you receive another overlapping benefit. This is called having an underlying entitlement.  It is currently £30.05 for each person who qualifies.

There are further premiums relating to children, but only claimants who have been getting Income Support since before April 2004 will be entitled to these as payments for children have now been incorporated into the Tax Credits system.

3. Housing Costs. Although the rules on these are complex, they generally pay towards mortgage interest payments, service charges and ground rent. Mortgage interest payments are usually only covered in full after you have been receiving Income Support for either eight, 13, 26 or 39 weeks depending on your circumstances. There is also a ceiling of either £100,000 or £200,000 (again depending on circumstances) on the amount of eligible loans on which interest payments can be met by Income Support. If assistance with rent is required, Housing Benefit can help with this.

How do income and hours of work affect Income Support?

Once your applicable amount has been calculated, the next step is to calculate your income. Income can come from a variety of sources and the main ones are described below. This is not an exhaustive list.

• Earnings and hours of work Net earnings after Income Tax and National Insurance contributions are normally taken into account in full when calculating Income Support subject to certain allowances called disregards. These are set amounts taken off your wages according to your circumstances.  For example, if you are a single person £5 per week is ignore (disregarded) from any wages you receive and your remaining wages are taken fully into account. However, there remains an overall limit on working hours of 16 hours per week if you are single, or 24 hours for your partner if your partner works.  If you work in excess of these hours you will not normally qualify for Income Support although you may qualify for Tax Credits instead.  Self-employed earnings are also taken into account.
• Benefits Most Social Security benefits are taken into account in full when calculating Income Support entitlement, as are Statutory Sick Pay and Statutory Maternity and Paternity Pay.  However, benefits which are disregarded when making the award include: Disability Living Allowance; Housing and Council Tax Benefit; Child Tax Credit and in most cases, Child Benefit (unless you still continue to receive an amount for your children as part of your Income Support applicable amount, in which case Child Benefit is taken into account in full).
• Maintenance payments Maintenance payments from an ex-partner for children are ignored.
• Income from student loans and grants If you are eligible to claim Income Support as a student then income from your student loan will be taken into account based on the maximum you are entitled to borrow, regardless of whether you actually take a loan out or not. There are disregards applied to take into account the costs of travel, books and equipment for your course. Student grants are also taken into account though some elements of grants such as those paid for children are disregarded.  
• Tariff income There is an upper limit of £16,000 on capital and if you have capital and savings in excess of this amount you will not qualify for Income Support.  However, if you have capital and savings between £6,000 and £16,000 an amount of tariff income is assumed from this. It is based on the following formula: for every £250 you hold either in part or whole above the lower limit of £6,000, one pound per week is taken as income. For example, if you have a bank account worth £7,300, a tariff income of £6 per week would be taken into account when working out your entitlement.
• Capital and savings Most capital and savings, such as bank and building society accounts, ISAs, stocks and shares are considered when calculating Income Support and tariff income applied to them as explained above. Capital which is disregarded includes the value of your own home if you live in it and a second home if you are taking steps to sell it, although if you own a second home and have no intention to sell, the marketable value of the home may be taken into account in full. Other disregarded capital includes lump sum arrears of some Social Security benefits, charitable payments and community care direct payments.

Once the applicable amount has been calculated and the correct income taken into account the difference between the two should be payable as Income Support if the applicable amount is higher than the income.  For example:

John who is 30 is married to Jane who is the same age. John works part time, 8 hours a week and receives £50.00. He also receives Carers Allowance of £53.90 per week for looking after Jane.  Jane receives Disability Living Allowance at the lower rate of the mobility component and highest rate of the care component. They have savings of £6,300 and no other income.

John qualifies for Income Support as a carer. To work out their Income Support entitlement first of all calculate their applicable amount:

Calculation of John and Janes' applicable amount:

Personal Allowance: £102.75 per week (couple aged 18 or over)
Disability Premium: £39.85 per week (awarded as Jane receives Disability Living Allowance)
Enhanced Disability Premium: £19.65 per week (awarded as Jane receives the higher rate of the care component of Disability Living Allowance)
Carers Premium: £30.05 per week (payable as John receives Carers Allowance)

Applicable amount: £192.30 per week

Next, calculate the weekly income:

Income from earnings: £30.00 per week (£20.00 of Johns £50.00 earnings are disregarded as John is a carer for Jane)
Income from Carers Allowance: £53.90 per week (Janes Disability Living Allowance is disregarded)
Tariff Income from savings: £2.00 per week

Total Income: £85.90 per week

Therefore the applicable amount of £192.30 per week minus the income of £85.90 
per week equals £106.40 which would be their weekly entitlement to Income Support.

How to claim

New claims for Income Support are now made by telephone on 0800 0556688 (or by contacting your local Social Security office if you live in Northern Ireland). When you first call an operator will take your telephone number and call you back to ask you the relevant questions in order to assess your claim.  This process takes about 40 minutes and you will then receive a copy of those answers in the post.  This is known as a statement.

The next stage is to read through the statement, correct any errors and provide any supporting information that is required such as wage slips or bank statements.  If you return this within a month of the date of the telephone claim then benefit will be awarded from the date of the first telephone call. If you are not able to make a claim over the telephone you can claim online or download a claim form from the direct.gov.uk website.

The Department of Works and Pensions will, on occasion, ask you to attend your local 

Jobcentre Plus office, either to provide documents or to attend an interview regarding
your work prospects. 

Income Support can be backdated for a maximum of three months, although to do this you must provide reasons as to why you did not make a claim before the date you applied. 

The NAS produce factsheets on other benefits which are available by telephoning our Autism Helpline on 0845 070 4004.  Welfare Rights advice is also available through an appointment System. Please call the helpline for further details. 

Further reading

Greaves, I. (2006). Disability Rights Handbook 32nd edition April 2007 April 2008. London: Disability Alliance.

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