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Definitions

Benefit – a payment made by the state or an insurance scheme to someone who is entitled to receive it.
  • This section aims to define the different types of benefits, but is not exhaustive. There are three distinct groups of benefits:
  1. contribution benefits
  2. means tested benefits
  3. non‐means tested benefits.

Contribution benefits

Contribution benefits are available to workers who have paid enough National Insurance contributions. These include (Cancer Research UK [38]):
  • Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) – for people who are ill or disabled, to give them financial support if they cannot work or help to work if they are able to.
  • Pension Credit (PC) – income support for people over pension age.
  • Bereavement Benefits – people may be able to get some financial help if someone close to them dies. To collect most of these bereavement benefits, they must either be married or a (same sex) civil partner of the person who has died. The benefits available are a one‐off bereavement payment, a bereavement allowance paid for 52 weeks to a surviving spouse (or civil partner) aged between 45 and pension age, and a widowed parent allowance if the claimant is under pension age and gets child benefit for dependent children. Claimants may also get help with funeral costs if a partner, close relative, close friend or child dies. They have to be on a low income and get certain benefits or tax credits.
  • Statutory Sick Pay (SSP) – a payment for employed people who become sick and who are unable to work. It is not means tested. To qualify, people must be employed and earn enough to pay National Insurance contributions. If people are still ill after 28 weeks, they could be eligible to claim Employment Support Allowance.

Means tested benefits

Means tested benefits are for a claimant who has no income and no or few savings to support themselves and requires the state to help them. These include (Cancer Research UK [38]):
  • Income Support (IS) – people aged between 16 and pension age can claim IS if they are on a low income, working less than 16 hours a week and not signed on as unemployed. If they have a partner, the partner must work less than 24 hours a week.
  • Housing Benefit (HB) – for people whose income is low, either because they are on other benefits or they do not earn very much.
  • Council Tax Reduction (CTR) – replaced Council Tax Benefit from April 2013. People can claim if they are on a low income or on benefits.
  • Universal Credit (UC) – was introduced in 2013 and is paid to people who are employed on a low income, as well as to those who are out of work. UC is intended to adapt to people's changing circumstances: those on low incomes should get ongoing support as they move in and out of work, rather than benefits stopping and starting and new claims having to be made. UC replaces the following: income‐based Job Seeker's Allowance; income‐related Employment and Support Allowance; Income Support; Child Tax Credits; Working Tax Credits and Housing Benefit.

Non‐means tested benefits

Non‐means tested benefits do not take into account the claimant's income and savings in the same way as means tested benefits do, but they do have their own rules which must be met. These include:
  • Disability Living Allowance (DLA) – a benefit for children under 16 who have difficulties in walking or need more help than a child of a similar age because of a disability or health condition. There are two parts to this benefit: care and mobility. Individuals can claim either or both. The care component consists of lower, middle and higher rate and the mobility component has a higher and lower rate.
  • Personal Independence Payment (PIP) – benefits for people aged 16–64 that help with some of the extra costs caused by long‐term ill‐health or a disability. Some of these needs can include personal care or help with getting around. PIP replaced DLA in 2013 for people aged 16–64. Since then, new claims are for PIP, not DLA. There are two parts to these benefits, the daily living component and the mobility component. Individuals can claim for either or both. If they qualify for the middle or higher rate, they may be entitled to a higher rate of Income Support, Employment Support Allowance, Housing Benefit, Tax Credits, Job Seeker's Allowance or Universal Credit because of their needs.
  • Attendance Allowance (AA) – for people aged 65 or over who need help with personal care because of illness or disability. There is no mobility addition for this benefit. They must have needed help for at least 6 months unless they are terminally ill, in which case they can claim the higher rate of AA straight away.
  • Carer's Allowance (CA) – a benefit for carers aged 16 and over who look after a relative or friend for at least 35 hours a week. To get CA, the claimant must be caring for someone who claims either PIP, DLA or AA.
Terminally ill patients, defined in benefit terms as ‘patients with a progressive disease and as a result of that disease will have less than 6 months to live’, can be awarded the highest rate of benefit for the care component of DLA, enhanced payment of the daily living component for PIP and the highest award of AA. The mobility element will still need to be assessed.
Doctors or specialist nurses will need to complete form DS1500 to accompany the benefit application; this will ensure that these benefit claims are fast tracked and are paid at the higher rate.
The types of benefits available may change dependent on government policy review. Further detailed information can be found at https://www.gov.uk/browse/benefits
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