IS20 - A guide to Income Support

Who can get Income Support?

People who can get Income Support

Only people who are not required to actively seek work can normally claim Income Support. [Legislation (8)]

You do not have to sign on as available for work or seek work actively if any one of the following applies to you:

People who are incapable of work

• you are incapable of work because of illness or disability. You will usually need medical evidence of this
• you are incapable of work because of pregnancy
• you are pregnant and within 11 weeks of your expected week of confinement, or your pregnancy ended within the last 15 weeks.

  Permitted work rules apply for people who want to try some paid work whilst they are getting Income Support because they are unable to work due to illness or disability.  For more information about Permitted work click on the incapacity benefit link down the right hand side of this page.

  You may be able to continue to claim Income Support because of an illness or disability if you will be working on average less than 16 hours a week or if you will be earning less than a certain amount a week.

  You should tell the office that deals with your benefit claim before you start work.

  For more information on permitted work contact the office that deals with your benefit claim or see leaflet WK1 Financial help if you are looking for work

People who are looking after somebody

• you are a lone parent or a single claimant and are responsible for a child under 16 living with you (you may need to take part in a personal adviser meeting before your claim can be processed)
• you are a lone parent or a single claimant who is looking after a foster child aged under 16 for a local authority or a voluntary organisation
• you are looking after a child because the parent or the person who normally looks after them is temporarily away or ill
• you are needed at home to regularly and substantially care for a severely disabled person. The person must be getting Attendance Allowance (AA), Constant Attendance Allowance (CAA) or the middle or highest rate care component of Disability Living Allowance (DLA), or have recently applied for it or have been notified that they will receive it from a future date. Alternatively, you must be in receipt of Carer’s Allowance. You will still be able to claim Income Support for 8 weeks after your role as a carer ceases. During the exemption period you will still be entitled to receive the carer premium
• you are looking after a member of your family who is temporarily ill
• you are a member of a couple, are looking after a child or children while your partner is temporarily absent from the UK, and are not in remunerative work.

People who are studying

• you are aged 16 to 19, are on a non-advanced course at school or college and meet certain other conditions
• you are a student in full-time education and are a lone parent or disabled or meet certain other conditions

Other situations

• you are attending Work Based Training for Young People or Skillseekers courses
• you are on strike or returning to work after a strike (this applies only for the first 15 days after returning to work)
• you are required to attend a law court for any day in the week as a juror, witness or Justice of the Peace, or are appearing as a claimant or defendant
• you have been granted refugee status and are attending an English language course for more than 15 hours a week, and when that course started you had been in Great Britain for under a year. You do not have to sign on for 9 months
• you are a disabled worker with reduced earnings capacity who is not treated as being in remunerative work
• you are in employment and live in a care home because you need care and qualify for Income Support. This does not include staff working and living in the home
• you are from abroad and are claiming an urgent Income Support payment
• you have been remanded in custody for trial or sentence
• you are temporarily absent from Great Britain to accompany a child or young person who is a member of your family and who is undergoing medical treatment, but only for the first 8 weeks of the absence
• you are registered blind. If you are no longer registered, you will be treated as registered for the first 28 weeks after you cease to be registered
• you have been found capable of work and you are continuing to provide medical evidence of incapacity while pursuing an appeal against that decision.

Income Support and Incapacity Benefit

If you are incapable of work and have paid enough National Insurance (NI) contributions, you may be able to get Incapacity Benefit as well as Income Support. It is paid at three rates:

• first 28 weeks of sickness – short-term lower rate
• from weeks 29–52 – short-term higher rate
• after one year – long-term rate

If you have not paid enough NI contributions to qualify, you may be able to get Incapacity Benefit if you are aged under 20 (25 in some circumstances). For more information, see leaflet SD1 Sick or disabled.

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