15.06.16

In her second guest blog, Jayne Knights, benefits expert, discusses how sorting out family finances when you are a disabled young person can be tricky, especially when you approach your 16^th birthday. Over to Jayne..

If you are living at home on your 16^th birthday, and you are continuing in full time education which is at or below A level standard, then in theory you can choose, or your appointee can choose on your behalf, whether to claim certain social security benefits in your own right, or continue to be claimed for as a dependent young person within the family. I’m going to be summarising issues surrounding this here, and I’ve also added some helpful resources at the end of this blog for further reading.

Personal Independence Payment (PIP) and Disability Living Allowance (DLA)

For most disabled young people approaching 16, any existing DLA claim will have to be reassessed under the PIP rules. As I said in my previous blog, this is not necessarily a bad thing, as some awards have actually increased after reassessment. However, you and your carer will need to think carefully about the process, as about 1 in 4 people get turned down for PIP even though they used to get DLA. Use the resources outlined in my previous blog to ensure you know what you’re doing with the points system well before your 16^th birthday – don’t be caught out on assessment day!

Occasionally, some young people are unwilling to go through the reassessment process as they find it hard to accept that they might have limitations or difficulties, or they may simply not want to go and talk to a ‘healthcare professional’ about personal matters. If you are the young person and you are acting on your own behalf, and you do not have an appointee, then obviously it is your decision about what you claim. Please think very carefully before you decide to give up any benefits though – they can be very difficult to get back, and you will be in a much better, and more independent, financial position if you claim what you are legally entitled to.

Employment and Support Allowance (ESA)

At 16 onwards, if you are not in education at all, or you are studying up to and including A level standard but for 12 hours or less a week, then your benefit path is clear – if you are claiming on the grounds of being unable to work due to illness or disability, then your claim will be for ESA*. If you have never worked, and you have less than £16,000 in savings of your own, it will be the income-related version of ESA*.

If you are in ‘full time’ education, however, then things are not so straightforward, and usually everything hinges on how many hours of education you are doing per week and what your parents are claiming.

Just answer these simple questions to take you down the right route.

1. Is your course at or below A level standard?
2. Are you studying for more than 12 hours a week?
3. Are you getting DLA or PIP?

If you answered yes to all three questions, then you can claim ESA*.

You can also get free school meals (16-18) AND you can apply to the 16 – 19 Bursary Fund from your school or college for up to £1200 a year for help with education-related costs (although be warned that some colleges give this help ‘in kind’ instead of in cash).

The dilemma

There is a dilemma when a young person in full time education COULD claim ESA in their own right, as I have described above, OR their parent / guardian could carry on claiming for them as a child dependent. This could be in the form of child tax credit, child benefit, housing benefit and help with council tax. There may be extra premiums and elements paid within these benefits too, especially if the young person gets high levels of DLA or PIP.

If you decide to claim in your own right, then these benefits will be lost, which can cause a big upheaval in the family finances and a loss of more money than you will get in ESA. However, some people gain more in ESA than their family loses, especially if they can access the higher amounts of ESA, and possibly the special bursary for 16-19 year old disabled young people who are in education and who also get DLA or PIP.

Solving the dilemma

If your family is in this situation and you are trying to decide what to do for the best, then you need to GET ADVICE, preferably in person from your local Citizens Advice Bureau (CAB) or advice centre. The benefits system is horribly complicated, and it’s difficult to get benefits back once you have given them up. As a general rule, the more that your family gets from means tested benefits (such as income support, JSA, tax credits and housing benefit), then the more it makes financial sense for you to carry on as your family’s dependent until you are no longer in full time education. You have to weigh up what you would get as an individual on ESA (plus the 16 -19 bursary) against what your family would lose if you started to claim independently.

If you would like further information on benefits for disabled young people, and especially on the issue of deciding between an independent claim or staying with the family benefits, then please have a look at the excellent factsheet prepared by Hertfordshire County Council Money Advice Unit. To find the factsheet, follow this link.

This factsheet looks in depth at the mechanics of claiming PIP and ESA, and goes through some excellent examples of who would be worse or better off by a young person claiming independently.

It’s always best to get face to face advice on these issues, but I recommend the exceptionally useful benefits calculator which you can find on www.turn2us.org.uk. This enables you to work out the impact on your benefits of choosing one path or another. It also gives information about local advice centres, and contains the details of thousands of charities and benevolent funds which may also be able to help with needs and expenses.

I hope you found this information useful – my thanks to Gary Vaux and his team for producing the factsheet!

*In a few areas of the country, you will have to claim Universal Credit (UC) instead

Thank you to Jayne Knights for an extremely informative and helpful blog. Jayne can be contacted via her website, please click here.