Bereavement Allowance - What can it be topped up with.

Hi,
I have a 58 year old Client who has recently been widowed. For a number of years she has received IB and MRC DLA. When her husband died, she claimed bereavement allowance and her IB stopped. Cl also has other pension income but this is still less than her applicable amount.

Question is - does she fall under income support / JSA or ESA to top up her income?

Thanks

She is still technically of working age, so ESA would be applicable if she is still too ill to work (as she used to be on IB). If she is fit for work then it would be JSA.
She could claim Income support if she was claiming carers allowance, but that doesnt seem to be the case here.
Make sure that she gets her Severe Disability Premium added to her applicable (as on MRC), as long as she lives alone and nobody claims carers allowance for looking after her. She is entitled to the SDP even on a new claim during assessment phase ESA

Hmmmm ... I’m thinking she can still claim IS. IB entitlement hasn’t ended, it just isn’t in payment due to overlapping benefit rules. Therefore as someone who is entitled to IB, she can still claim IS on the basis of disability.

Is her IB claim still live and “Running in the background” so to speak, or will Jobcentre Plus have closed the IB claim when the overlapping BA benefit kicked in? I have had JC+ arbitrarily close ESA and JSA claims on many occasions without even consulting the client properly.

That will need to be confirmed - in bereavement cases I’ve dealt with in the past, when BA starts being paid to a surviving partner, underlying entitlement remains to other benefits it might overlap with which has meant that that premiums related to the underlying entitlement should continue to be included in applicable amounts for other benefits like HB. Sometimes takes a bit of time to persuade HB of this but DWP shouldn’t have a problem with the concept as it frequently happens with CA of course. Only reason to stop IB entitlement would be if claimant is found no longer to have IfW or is transfered to ESA.

There is no statutory power to ‘close a claim’ (a claim ceases to subsist once a decision is made on it) without a section 10 supersession decision altering entitlement.

Try telling that to Jobcentre Plus Nevip!
I had a client last week who got his JSA sanctioned for failing to attend a meeting at the Jobcentre as he was already attending a training programme that they sent him for (he cant be in 2 places at once!)
He was told by JC+ “not to bother coming back as we’ve stopped yer money, and a new claim isnt worth it either as the sanction will apply to the new claim” We are appealing this.
I called JC+ and asked them why they closed his claim without consultation and the call centre told me that “we close claims all the time if we feel its warranted”

Unbelievable

I know this is common practice.  Ignorance of, or wilful blindness to, the law is one reason why there will ‘always’ be a need for our profession.  I’ve lost count of the number of times down the years that I’ve had to write letters along the lines of ‘hey, the law is not what you lot make up as you go along but is what is quoted below.  Never mind that you’ve had a look at the law, decided that you don’t like it and have chosen to ignore it.  Apply the law tout suite or else.  Love and affection, Paul’.

Just had another ESA client 15 minutes ago who was told over the phone “Youve failed your medical, so we are closing your claim and you will have to claim Jobseekers instead”
No decision letter, nowt.

Marvellous (and illegal)