Claiming Benefits at Job Centre Plus

Meeting financial obligations in life is something that you cannot choose to overlook. There are many instances where you would be required to pay for products and services and if you don’t have money to spend, you might find life to be quite unforgiving.   If you are living in disability or have been forced to live in absolute poverty, you can still get monetary assistance from the government.

The United Kingdom is one of the many countries across the globe which have implemented proper platforms for claiming benefits and has allowed people of all races, ability levels and economic classes to access proper financing and be able to support their daily lives.  If you are seeking to claim any benefits owed to you by the government in the UK, these are the four major classifications of benefits you stand to get;

•    Income support benefits
•    Childcare benefits
•    Incapacitated benefits
•    Disability living allowance

Incapacitated benefits

In the United Kingdom, Incapacitated benefits have since been replaced by employment and support allowances (ESA).  If you want to claim benefits in this category, Jobcentre Plus experts can ideally offer you the kind of services you require.

When you submit a claim or application for these benefits, the issuer would assess your situation in order to determine whether you are eligible for ESA or have the capacity to work. According to the current stipulations, your claim would not be reviewed if you are to reach the state pension age before the 6th of April 2014.

Some of the benefits that are slowly being phased out from the previous case include;
•    Severe disablement allowances
•    Incapacity benefits
•    Income support benefits that are paid because of disability and illnesses

The people who receive incapacitated benefits will be reviewed in order to see whether they are eligible for employment or even support allowances. This means that;
•    People that are capable of working will move to the jobseeker allowance
•    People who require more support as they prepare to work will get the help they need through Employment and Support allowances.
•    Those who are severely disabled and cannot be expected to work can get support from ESA

Childcare benefits

These are the kind of claims that help in paying for childcare costs, occasional family day care, outside school care, and even pre-school and kindergarten care. In order to be approved for these benefits, you need to;

•    Use an approved or registered child care service
•    You will also be required to meet an income test
•    Your child ought to have been immunized
•    You need to be responsible for paying any child care fees

When claiming childcare benefits, you will basically be required to submit your claim for the benefit to the responsible agencies. Again, you can approach the claim option online or even do it in person.  Online services are deemed to be most secure and reliable and especially considering that we are living in an information age, you can be sure that most agencies would treat online claimants with utmost seriousness.  You can still settle for the in-person option but be sure that not many people are going that way.

Income support

Just as the term suggests, income supports refers to extra money that you will get if you have a low income or have no income at all.  Again, if you work less than 16 hours a week and have not signed on as an unemployed party, you can still qualify for such benefits.
Just like the other types of claims, you need to meet a certain criteria or conditions so as to be deemed eligible for income support.  Again, the amount that you will get out of your claim will depend on your circumstances but if in any case you qualify and you don’t have an income, you will get 56.25 pounds a week.

It is also worth noting that if you claim income support and you have children, you can still claim child tax credit.

Disability living allowance

Disability living allowances are paid on a weekly basis at different rates which hare made up of two components or parts.  You can qualify for any of these or both.  The two main components in such claims are;
1.    Mobility component
2.    Care component

The care component is comprised of three levels of allowances which included care for part of the day, frequent help with constant supervision and help and supervision all day and all night.  On the other hand, the mobility component caters for guidance and supervision while outdoors, and helps for people who have got severe walking disability.

Once you have submitted your application to get these benefits, the benefits, allowances and pensions are channelled to an account such as your bank account.

These are just but some of the few and main aspects you need to take note of when you are claiming benefits in any of these cases. Most of the advice contained here related to people living in the United Kingdom.