Severe Disability Premium

Client claims PIP , has no Carer, claiming Carers Allowance and would like to claim Severe Disability Premium .He lives alone although his tenancy is in joint names. This is preventing a SDP claim being agreed .The money is need for care costs . The tenancy cannot be changed to just the sole name due to lockdown. Can anyone advise the best course of action

From what you have posted he isn’t claiming a means tested legacy benefit which could include an SDP. He cannot make a new claim for such a benefit. May have entitlement to Uc based on other circumstances (but obviously this doesn’t include SDP).

Apologies I should have included ESA, which he claims .

If he is getting ESA and he is living alone, gets PIP standard daily living and has no one claiming carers allowance, then he should get the SDP in his ESA.

It’s irrelevant that he might be a joint tenant if the other tenant has moved out. If this is the reason being given for refusal then he needs to request a mandatory reconsideration and if that is unsuccessful he can appeal.

Even if the joint tenant was still there, that wouldn’t prevent him from qualifying for SDP unless the joint tenant was a partner or close relative. A lot of people don’t realize that you can get SDP if you are living with unrelated joint tenants, or an unrelated landlord or lodger.

Just to add to what Emma said, this also means that (provided circumstances were the same) there’s scope for a backdated SDP claim.

But just a word of caution: the rules around SDP under joint tenancies are poorly understood at DWP, and frequently cause them to try to refuse the SDP.