Good afternoon, I have decided to resign from my job, which is quite physical due to my fibromyalgia.I receive standard pip, and my husband gets carers allowance for me.
I was just wondering how difficult it is to apply for universal credit, and whether they expect you to look for other work, or if you get pip they don't expect you to.
Any one else gone down this path?
Thank you.x
hi,
If you pass the medical criteria, they won’t expect you to look for work and possibly get the higher rate, but if you don’t pass, they will expect you to look for work, and stop your money if you don’t turn up for interviews.
If you got through it with pip, you shouldn’t have a problem.
Good luck.
Please contact our benefits team - they can self you guidelines on applying and explain it to you.
Hi Hazel, I know this is a UK thing but what is carers allowance? I don’t know if the US has it nor even know where to start looking for finding equivalent thing in the US? My late husband was disabled mostly weight and diabetes related problems that towards the end he became incontinent and could barely walk from bed to couch and back to bed. He fell 4 times in a 4-6 week period but refused to go to the hospital but the last time his O2 was dropping into the 70’s. I was able to get this one agency come out for his medical needs and we were trying to get him on oxygen but kept hitting resistance with American Home Patients which wouldn’t send out oxygen concentrator because he didn’t have CHF nor COPD diagnosis. It was very frustrating. I’m sorry for venting but the last time he fell the paramedics and I were able to convince him to go to the hospital because off the low O2 levels and mobility issues. He caught COVID while in the hospital and never recovered. I didn’t get any allowance for caring for him. I’m just curious for if I couldn’t take care of myself if my son who lives with me could get the allowance? His dad lived with us when his health deteriorated and kept falling. He too had diabetes. Both were diagnosed after we were married with diabetes. Sorry for rambling on about this. I just didn’t know how or where to go to find out his service.
Hi, I've no idea whether there is a USA equivalent to carers allowance.
To qualify in the UK, you need to be caring for a person for at least 35 hours a week and not earning above a certain limit, and the person you care for needs to be in receipt of a disability benefit such as Pip.
Thank you Hazel, yes my husband was on disability and we both were on disability. I don’t know but reading the comments on this feed made me wonder about this. Thank you for responding to my question.
Hi , sorry that you feel it’s time to leave work, but exactly the same happened to me .
I was on long term sickness from work and applied for ESA as a top up to my wage, the DWP sent me for an assesment I was claiming the lower amount.
After I had the assesment I received a letter saying I was awarded the higher amount and now don’t need to send sick notes or be expected to look for work.
I was also told to apply for PIP as you can claim for both too .
Hope that helps also have you got the option of gaining your pension early on I’ll health grounds rather than just leaving .
Sending you big careful hugs
Jeannie
hi there. I thought pip was only if you were in work and was to pay for anything to help you stay in work. That was what I was told when I was not working that I could claim out of work benefits but definitely not pip.
Hi there , I think you have received some incorrect information.
Please either ring CAB a or the benefits team on here ,they will help and point you in the right direction .
I know this can be very scary and not at all what you need especially at this time but please don’t just resign as there is help out there .
Take care and think things through first
Jeanie
Thank you, I will do that.
Hi, no you can claim pip whether your working or not. It helps towards extra costs of daily living.
Thankyou for the information, I will pursue it further.
I know nothing about Universal Credit …but do be careful about just resigning without taking advice from somewhere like the CAB or it could be having resigned …you have made yourself unemployed & that could lead to all sorts of problems.
I’m in the US so things maybe different but before I was diagnosed with fibromyalgia I was having problems with work and health problems. I was told by my supervisor that I could take a 6wks leave of absence but I would have to get a doctor’s note saying I was cured. If I returned back to work and still had the same problems they would fire me. When I was diagnosed with fibromyalgia the doctor just laughed at writing a letter saying I was cured because there wasn’t a cure for fibromyalgia so I resigned from my job. This was in 94. I ended up having to go through a lawyer to get social security disability. I don’t know if there was a better way I could have gone? I don’t know. Reading about all these services makes me wonder if there are equivalent programs available in the US? Thank you for any feedback.
As I said, I know nothing about Benefits in the US or the UK, but I know I have read if you deliberately make yourself unemployed then applying for any sort of benefit won’t be easy.
I do understand with universal credit in the UK, if you have any savings they are taken into account as to whether you are actually awarded it.
After all, in the UK, all these benefits are paid for by people who are working and paying income tax…often earning less than the benefit their tax is paying towards.
Its not too hard, yoù can apply online and they ask some questions and they will phone you up to ask some security questions and i think thats it x Good luck x
hi sorry to hear u hve had to make this decision there are times when things are beyond our control five months ago i had also to leave work due to ill health i was awarded uc and 3 months of being on this i was awarded lwrca and pip i don’t hve to look for work or provide anymore sicklines anyone i came into contact was more than helpful navigating me through the process so try not to worry hope u get sorted
I get DLA as I am older than the NHS. I also get my pension.
My son gets Carer's Allowance for me and has recently started to get Universal Credit, as it is a full time job looking after me, he doesn't have to work search.
I'm not sure what the qualifications are, but I'm pretty sure your Husband could get Universal Credit. You could enquire of the DHS.
Cheers, Midori
I would like to add to this post that some people are now on Universal Credit after a long run of working but ill Health has meant that they can no longer work and have no pension pots available to them or other means of income. So they paid their taxes like everyone else and now have to ask for help. This is why it’s there to make sure as a society wherever possible people don’t fall down large cracks.
Don't resign from work. Go sick and if you are not getting full pay, put in for either new style ESA based on your NI contributions and/or Universal Credit on grounds of Limited Capability for Work, otherwise Universal Credit will say you made yourself unemployed and you can be sanctioned. Being sanctioned could mean no money or reduced money for some months. The Limited Capability for Work assessment differs from the assessment for PIP. There is some overlap but the outcome can be different as the criteria vary. Before you do anything else, use an online benefits calculator like the one on the Turn2Us website to see what you might be eligible for and whether you can survive on it.
Universal Credit Work Capability Assessment
Pip calling today
Help with advice on PIP assessment
