Description of the Income Support scheme

Income Support (IS) replaced Supplementary Benefit from April 1988. Up until 7 October 1996 it could be claimed by all people who worked for less than 16 hours a week. Since then, IS has been restricted to those who are not deemed to be available for work i.e. lone parents, carers, the sick and disabled. The following briefly describes the main conditions which a claimant must satisfy to receive IS and other key features of the scheme. Full details can be found in leaflet IS20 "A Guide to Income Support", available on the internet.   

http://www.jobcentreplus.gov.uk/JCP/stellent/groups/jcp/documents/websitecontent/dev_015442.pdf

2. Eligibility for Income Support

IS is a non-contributory benefit and the full basis for entitlement is set out in regulations. People in Great Britain who are aged: 16 or over; not working 16 hours or more a week or with a partner not working more than 24 hours or more per week; and not required to be available for employment are eligible to claim IS. It is payable if a person's resources are less than their applicable amounts (see below) and they satisfy the qualifying conditions. Provision is made for payment to be made outside the normal rules in certain urgent cases.

Young people undergoing full-time education of a non-advanced nature are not normally eligible for IS in their own right. The majority of 16 and 17 years old are also normally unable to claim IS. There are, however, a limited number of exceptions to this rule, which mainly apply to those who have dependent children, disabilities or caring responsibilities, or the estranged or orphaned who remain in full time non-advanced education.

3. Assessment of benefit

IS claims are made and assessed on a “Benefit unit” basis. A benefit unit consists of the claimant plus any partner and/or dependent children they have. Unmarried couples who are living together as husband and wife are treated in the same way as a married couple. Either partner may claim IS.

Dependent children are those aged 15 or under plus those aged 16 to 19 who are in non-advanced full-time education. (However, parents of young people who have made a new IS claim after September 2005 will receive Child Tax Credits, rather than an IS addition for their children.)

The resources (income) of a benefit unit are counted together for the purposes of working out

benefit entitlement (see next section), with the exception of any children's capital, which is taken into account separately.

4. Rate of benefit

The amount of benefit which a claimant can receive is calculated using an “applicable amount” and takes account of any resources they have. Receipt of IS also automatically entitles the claimant and dependants to certain other welfare benefits.

Applicable Amounts are specified by regulation and are used to calculate the maximum amount of benefit that a claimant can receive. These consist of:

a personal allowance - which depends upon the age of the claimant and the presence and age of a partner;

additions for any dependants - if Child Tax Credit is not in payment;

“premiums” - which provide additional allowances in recognition of special needs such as old age or disability; and certain types of housing costs (see section 5 below).

Resources of a benefit unit consist of its total income (e.g. from other social security benefits, earnings from part-time employment, etc,) and assumed income from capital assets (see below).

The rate of IS payable to a claimant is normally the amount needed to bring the resources of the benefit unit up to their applicable amount (i.e. the applicable amount less the total resources).

Some types of resources are subject to a disregard, that is all or parts of them are ignored when calculating total resources.

The main types that are subject to a disregard are:

Part-time earnings where the first £5 each week is disregarded for the claimant and/or their partner. Lone parents and Disabled claimants qualify for a £20 earnings disregard. The earnings of children are fully disregarded, but if the child has left school some earnings may be taken into account.

Benefits and pensions where War Disablement Pension and War Widow's Pension are subject to a partial disregard and Mobility Allowance, Attendance Allowance and Disability Living Allowance are normally disregarded in full.

Other miscellaneous types of income are disregarded such as certain payments received from charities, the annuity paid to a holder of the Victoria Cross, etc.

Capital assets (e.g. savings, investments or property other than their home) where income of assets worth under £6,000 is ignored (some assets may also be disregarded, e.g. property occupied by an aged relative). Savings between £6000 and £16000 are treated as if each £250 or part of £250 brings in an income of £1 per week. If capital assets total more than £16000, the claimant is not entitled to Income Support (N.B. these rates apply to those of working age only).

Claimants in residential care and nursing homes have their capital treated differently. They are allowed to have up to £16,000 and still be entitled to IS. Up to £10,000 of their assets are also disregarded.

5. Housing costs

Claimants in rented accommodation can receive assistance with most of their housing costs through Housing Benefit. Amounts for certain other types of housing costs can be included in the assessment of a person's applicable amount, though there is usually a waiting period at the start of the claim before the costs can be allowed. These include:

The amount for these items may be reduced in certain circumstances to take account of contributions from non-dependants (i.e. other adults in the property who are not part of the benefit unit) and any amount by which the housing costs are excessive. Housing costs in IS do not cover water charges as these are part of the day to day living expenses already covered by the personal allowances and premiums in the applicable amount.

Council Tax cannot normally be met by housing costs in IS. Instead, help with Council Tax is

provided through Council Tax Benefit which, like Housing Benefit, is a Social Security benefit

administered by local authorities.

IS entitles the claimant to maximum Housing Benefit and Council Tax Benefit which can be up to 100 per cent of the claimant's eligible rent and council tax subject to any deductions in respect to non-dependants.

6. Disability Premiums

There are three disability premiums within Income Support and income-based Jobseeker's Allowance. The first of these is as follows:

The disability premium -entitlement to this premium is linked to the payment of disability benefits; primarily Disability Living Allowance (DLA). Receipt of a disability benefit is used as an indication that a claimant is likely to have extra costs because of their condition. The premium is also paid to those claimants who are blind or who have been incapable of work for at least 364 days. This is in line with the extra help provided by way of the long-term rate of Incapacity Benefit, also paid after at least 364 days incapacity for work. Extra help is provided to these claimants in recognition of the fact that people with a long-term incapacity are also likely to have extra costs because of their condition.

The other two are paid alongside the disability premium. These are as follows:

The severe disability premium -an additional premium intended to help those who are severely disabled and who live independently, and who are therefore most likely to need to purchase care.

It is recognised that there are circumstances when people sharing accommodation should not be expected, or may not be able, to provide care for the disabled person. For this reason, the presence of certain people is ignored when deciding whether or not the disabled person lives alone. This means that no account is taken of; people who live in the same home because of a commercial arrangement (such as a tenant, landlord or joint owner but not if they are a close relative); people who are under the age of 18; or people who are blind or receiving Attendance Allowance or the middle or higher care component of Disability Living Allowance.

Enhanced Disability Premium - paid in addition to the disability and severe disability premiums and which provides a guaranteed level of income for those customers under 60 years of age who are receiving an income related benefit and Disability Living Allowance care component at the higher rate.

7. Carer premium

The carer premium is paid to those who are looking after a disabled person and are either in receipt of Carer's Allowance or have underlying entitlement to Carer's Allowance.

8. Family premium

Families with a dependent child or children, who do not receive Child Tax Credit, will receive a family premium.

9. Payment

Payments of benefit are paid into a person's bank account