New Name For Incapacity Benefit?

[Valeriea]

Can anyone tell me what Incapacity Benefit is called now and what is the weekly amount ? Does the amount increase with how old you are? Also can you still claim Housing Benefit while claiming Incapacity Benefit? Thanks in advance.

[sandyRoe]

Employment and support allowance

[murraymints]

ESA ..amount depends on age and circs..yes you can claim housing benefit and council tax benefit at same time

[jim360]

IB is being replaced by Employment and Support Allowance (ESA). The amount you get depends on age and circumstances but is at most a little over £100 per week.

There is no restriction on claiming HB based on ESA claims as they are for separate benefits for the time being at least (I can't remember the full list of benefits that Universal Credit merges). However the total you get may be affected by the benefits cap.

[joggerjayne]

Always a good way to resolve all problems with anything ...

Just give it a new name.

[Jackdaw33]

Quite right, JJ. It used to be sickness benefit and the dole used to be unemployment benefit, not 'Job Seeker's Allowance'!

[jim360]

Quite. The worst of the matter is that, having just checked, Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) is indeed in the list of benefits to be merged into Universal Credit (UC). The DWP, having spent six years or so trying desperately to get ESA to work, have spent at least four of those years also working on its replacement before ESA was even finished! And, at the same time, have been enduring cuts in staffing of somewhere close to 40%, at least in certain sub-departments. It is little wonder that Universal Credit is not going to be delivered on-time, ob-budget and as-planned.

It doesn't help that Iain Duncan Smith is an arrogant git, either.

[THECORBYLOON]

It's only the income based element of JSA and ESA that will be replaced by Universal Credit, contribution based JSA and ESA will remain as separate benefits.

[jim360]

Thanks for the clarification Corby.

[Britishbat82]

Employment and Support allowance
you can find out more about it here
https://www.gov.uk/employment-support-allowance

[alavahalf]

Jim ... £100+.. that's wishful thinking... ESA it's actually £73.10 pw.