Income Support
What is Income Support (IS)?
Income Support gives you a basic living expense. It is a means tested benefit. This means your savings, income or the income of other people in your household will affect how much you get. The benefit does not depend on your National Insurance (NI) contributions.
Can I claim Income Support?
You can only claim income support if you get or are entitled to the severe disability premium (SDP).
The SDP is an amount of money that can be paid on top of other benefits such as Housing Benefit.
You also have to:
- Be between 16 and under pension age,
- Live in the UK,
- Have no income or your income is below your ‘applicable amount.’ Your applicable amount is the amount of money the law says you need to be able to live,
- Not be in full time education,
- Be working less than 16 hours per week and your partner is not working more than 24 hours per week,
- Have less than £16,000 in household savings and capital,
- Not be eligible for Job Seekers Allowance (JSA) or Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) ESA and your partner is not claiming income related JSA or ESA,
At least one of the following must also apply:
- You do not have to work because you are caring for someone.
- You are a lone parent of a child who is under 5 years old.
- You are a lone foster parent with a child under 16.
- You are entitled to Statutory Sick Pay.
- You are pregnant and unable to look for work because of pregnancy.
- You are on maternity, paternity or parental leave, or
are in custody.
You can claim IS for other reasons but the rules are complicated. Speak to a welfare rights adviser if you think you should be claiming IS rather than ESA or JSA.
Can I work and receive Income Support?
You can receive Income Support if you are working less than 16 hours a week and your partner is working less than 24 hours a week.
Will my Income Support stop?
You may be able to claim Income Support for as long as you still meet the conditions.
The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) will stop your Income Support if they stop the qualifying benefit like Carer's Allowance – you may be able to challenge the decision to take away your qualifying benefit.
