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Ginny’s words of wisdom on claiming Incapacity benefit

Ginny Penney (left) in the audience at the conference.

Incapacity Benefit which replaces Severe Disablement Benefit, seems to be a complicated benefit to claim for 16 year olds – it should be very straightforward - I had a lot of trouble gaining this benefit for Philip, although it was backdated to his 16th Birthday it was not very straightforward for us.

The day before his birthday I had to take a copy of his birth certificate to the benefits office, although the help line stated that I did not need to send any information with the original form – you do need to get a medical certificate from your GP and the young person will eventually have to have a medical by a Benefits Agency Doctor.

I ended up having to complete two forms, writing to the Child benefit office – as to take up incapacity benefit the child benefit needs to cease. The help line also informed me that Philip could claim income support.

The problem was that until he had been awarded Incapacity Benefit they would not issue the income support form (over 40 pages). The moral of this story is to find out what you are entitled to – this benefit can have a knock on effect to other circumstances within the family - photocopy all the forms and keep phoning to make sure the claim is going through.

By Ginny Penney