Incapacity Benefit taken removed, replaced with Wi

Hello,

A friend of mine is on contributions based Incapacity Benefit. Her husband died in September. She’s just got a letter saying she should be on Widows Parent’s Allowance rather than Incapacity Benefit [you can only receive on or the other]. The problem is WPA is worth less than IB.

This seems strange to me. She is as disabled as she was before her husband died, so how can she end up worse off?

Has anyone got any advice or experience of this?

Best wishes and thanks for your help.
Kirsteen.

I haven't come across this with WPI, but I've come across quite a few accounts of women with children on ESA being told they should be claiming IS as single parents, which is wrong.

I've had a quick look for the provisions relating to overlapping benefits, but there appear to be special rules relating to the combination of IB and WPA, so unless one of my fellow moderators knows the answer, I think you need to seek face-to-face advice from a welfare adviser.

If you see a welfare adviser, I believe that the answer may be on p277 of the 2008/9 edition of the CPAG guide to welfare benefits, but I don't have a copy of that, only a reference to it. I'd be interested in the answer myself once you find out.

Thanks for all your advice. I will get my friend to see a specialist advisor. I can't find any information on the web that refers to the specific overlapping rules but ti's clear there are some.

Best wishes and thanks again.
Kirsteen.

www.hertsdirect.org/docs/pdf/b/bereave

also


If you're already getting any of the following benefits, the amount of your payments may change once you start to get Widowed Parent's Allowance:

•Income Support
•Incapacity Benefit
•Jobseeker's Allowance
•Carer's Allowance
•Employment and Support Allowance