IB Claim pls help

[Helen2264]

Hello everyone,I am new here just joined. Can someone please help me with claiming IB. I am receiving Income Support/Child Tax Credit/Child Benefit at the moment. Due to my ill health the Job centre suggested I claim IB. I am very confused as I have not been working since 2004 and have not paid NI so how can I make a claim for IB. I read that to claim for IB you need to have paid NI in the past 3 years etc. I am also in the process of making a claim for DLA, I have today received both my IB and DLA claim forms. I am so confused with both that I do not know where to start. Can someone please guide me or give me tips of the best way to fill in those forms, good job I have six weeks before I need to send these forms back. I will be seeing my doctor next week regarding a Sick Note, I read so much horror of people not being successful with their claimants it's making my panic attack worse. I have been housebound for 2 weeks now with my Fribro problems and panic attacks, I am so worry of being rejected, I am physically mentally unable to cope with all those appeals and re-claiming i read about, my body right down is in total shutdown.Any help i can get with IB and DLA would be much appreciated. If I get IB would I need to keep asking the doctor for sick notes and if I stay as i am on Income Support the job centre will keep asking me to attend interview etc, it was the lady at the job centre that told me to claim for IB as she know my problems and said that they would lay of my back about me needing to attend interviews etc.many thanks in advancehelen

[pompom]

I was told that I could claim IB too when I tried to phone the benefits helpline but I am not sure if I am entitled either, I really want to work but I am so stressed and suffer from anxiety that I cant function when I try to work, I volunteered in an office but it was really bad and I got ill. Also I am not registered disabled but cannot walk up stairs, I got a job in Boots a couple of years ago but had to leave because they had no lift and really long stairs which were killing me, my problems started after I had an epidural at the birth of my son, is there someone that can help with the claiming or something for people like us two? there must be some office or something where you can get help

[Helen2264]

Originally Posted by pompom

I was told that I could claim IB too when I tried to phone the benefits helpline but I am not sure if I am entitled either, I really want to work but I am so stressed and suffer from anxiety that I cant function when I try to work, I volunteered in an office but it was really bad and I got ill. Also I am not registered disabled but cannot walk up stairs, I got a job in Boots a couple of years ago but had to leave because they had no lift and really long stairs which were killing me, my problems started after I had an epidural at the birth of my son, is there someone that can help with the claiming or something for people like us two? there must be some office or something where you can get help

Hi pompom,I am sorry about your health problem, at last i found someone similar to myself, Are you on Income Support at the moment? I am also a single parent, the most confusion i had when i saw many single adults claiming Income Support, I assumed it was a benefit just for single parents, very naive of me. I too have been working for years, I have been on IS for 3 years now. If i had a choice i too would be working, i am not bragging but i was earning more in a week for what i am getting in a month and to see many people think some of us wants to be on benefit instead of working. I had a very well paid job and a decent living, the difference in my life now is so vast it's a nightmare. I've tried to work as much as my health would let me, but for the past 3 yrs my body just gave up. I too not registered as disabled and like yourself i avoid stairs, escalators, etc, i have to hold on to the rails when i go up or down the stairs it's a very slow process. My anxiety and panic attacks is worse than before. My problem started back in 1985 i spent a week in hospital whilst pregnant with my first. I've had two premature births, two miscarriages, 3 operations within 4 yrs all gynae related. Oh well lets hope we can get some help, you may be able to claim for DLA which is Disability Living Allowance, the jobcentre was the one that told me i can claim for it when i rang for my IB claim pack. I had no idea about IB or DLA. I have received both the IB and DLA claim pack hence! my being here in this forum hoping for some help. take carehelen

[IdaInFife]

The CAB office can help with form filling and can help with what you are entittled to.


Idax

[pompom]

I dont know about where you live but the CAB are in crisis here, they cant give people good advice, last time someone from there wrote a letter and even i couldn't understand what they had written and then i was sent back from another CAB office by staff who didn't even bother to find out what my problem was and they were really nasty to me about it, i am still waiting for the appointment they promised me as well as them losing the paperwork

[Invasive_Frost]

To answer your original question Helen the reason why it is worth you claiming IB (maybe) is that in October the rules for Income Support are changing. From October you will no longer qualify for Income Support if your youngest child is over 12 years old, and within a year if your child is over 7. For the vast majority of single parents claiming Income Support this will mean having to claim Jobseekers Allowance and looking for work.
If as you say you have not worked and paid National Insurance then you will not receive Incapacity Benefit, however having a claim to Incapacity Benefit will enable you to continue to receive the Income Support. As to filling out the forms I can only advise you to fill out the bits you can do and if any particular questions confuse you then come back to this thread and post the questions and why they are confusing you, and I will try to help.
Sorry if I have made an assumption about why the Jobcentre has advised you to claim IB. However also beware the medical tests etc that the Jobcentre uses to decide if you will continue to be entitled to benefit are also changing soon and continuing to recieve benefit is likely to have it's own stresses.

[Helen2264]

Originally Posted by Invasive_Frost

To answer your original question Helen the reason why it is worth you claiming IB (maybe) is that in October the rules for Income Support are changing. From October you will no longer qualify for Income Support if your youngest child is over 12 years old, and within a year if your child is over 7. For the vast majority of single parents claiming Income Support this will mean having to claim Jobseekers Allowance and looking for work.
If as you say you have not worked and paid National Insurance then you will not receive Incapacity Benefit, however having a claim to Incapacity Benefit will enable you to continue to receive the Income Support. As to filling out the forms I can only advise you to fill out the bits you can do and if any particular questions confuse you then come back to this thread and post the questions and why they are confusing you, and I will try to help.
Sorry if I have made an assumption about why the Jobcentre has advised you to claim IB. However also beware the medical tests etc that the Jobcentre uses to decide if you will continue to be entitled to benefit are also changing soon and continuing to recieve benefit is likely to have it's own stresses.

Hi Frost,many thanks for your reply. I am still confuse with IB business. I rang the jobcentre today and ask them how can I claim IB if i haven't work for the past 3 yrs, the lady told me i don't qualify to claim for IB, so i said why then two people i saw at the jobcentre when i had my back to work focus told me to claim IB and i also rang the jobcentre they send me a claim pack and told me to enclose a sick note with it, the lady then said well if they've ask you for a sick note then it should be ok. anyway i saw my gp at last and she was very helpful and gave me a sick note for 3 months plus put down the condition of my illness, so i will try to claim IB if i get it then that's ok but if not there is nothing i can do about it, i was also told by the jobcentre that i can claim dla as they seen my health problems so the main thing now i will do is to claim for dla which luckily on both count of my illnesses i can claim. so that's the road i will take for now. i will also get a Disability Guide Handbook.many thanks regardshelen

[Invasive_Frost]

I forgot to answer one of the questions you asked. If you claim IB then you will need to continue to send sick notes until you go to a medical examination after which time you will not need to send in the notes any more, but they will send you to see one of their contracted doctors on a regular basis. This information is subject to change as the rules for claiming IB are changing soon. I will know more tomorrow as I am meeting with a friend who still works there and has just had training about the changes that are happening soon.

Also make a note in your diary for the fifteenth of July as that is the date you will need a new sick note from your doctor, that is assuming that you got the note today and that they don't send you for a medical before that date. It is also worth noting that if you don't have a sick note for the entire period of a payment they will not release a payment so it may be worth going to your doctor a week or so early to make sure that there is no inturruption in your payments.

[IdaInFife]

Hi Helen,

The worse they can say is no!

I see Frost has helped you immensly so far.



Idax