IS - Severe Disability Premium - Living Alone

Hi

I am in receipt of DLA (High Care and Mobility), Severe Disablement Allowance and Income Support. I live under the same roof as my elderly parents, but have my own bedroom, kitchen, living room, etc. No one gets Carer's Allowance for me.

For several years I have been in receipt of the Severe Disability Premium. However after a review this month, this premium has been stopped. This has happened in the past but when we have phoned up and explained our living circumstances, they have reinstated the premium.

This time however the person we spoke to on the phone is adamant that I do not count as living independently and insists the previous DWA advice/decisions were wrong. He says that
if you live in the same registered postal address and land registry then you count as living together, end of story.

I have a copy of the Disability Rights Handbook which states "If you are living under the same roof as other people, with a seperate bedroom, kitchen and living room you won't count as living with those people so you qualify for the SDP" and gives the reference: IS Regs, reg 3(4).

I have tried finding where it states this in the official legistration, but due to the way my illness affects my brain I am not able to understand the wording nor able to spend long looking, so have failed to find the relevant information to support my case. Even writing this post is very difficult so I hope it makes sense. )

Please can anyone shed any light on this matter and if possible provide me with information to support my case, or advise me on where I can get further help? Or does anyone know if things have things changed in the past couple years to mean that I no longer count as living alone?

Many thanks for any help/advise you can provide.

srqwerty wrote:

Hi

I am in receipt of DLA (High Care and Mobility), Severe Disablement Allowance and Income Support. I live under the same roof as my elderly parents, but have my own bedroom, kitchen, living room, etc. No one gets Carer's Allowance for me.

For several years I have been in receipt of the Severe Disability Premium. However after a review this month, this premium has been stopped. This has happened in the past but when we have phoned up and explained our living circumstances, they have reinstated the premium.

This time however the person we spoke to on the phone is adamant that I do not count as living independently and insists the previous DWA advice/decisions were wrong. He says that
if you live in the same registered postal address and land registry then you count as living together, end of story.

I have a copy of the Disability Rights Handbook which states "If you are living under the same roof as other people, with a seperate bedroom, kitchen and living room you won't count as living with those people so you qualify for the SDP" and gives the reference: IS Regs, reg 3(4).

I have tried finding where it states this in the official legistration, but due to the way my illness affects my brain I am not able to understand the wording nor able to spend long looking, so have failed to find the relevant information to support my case. Even writing this post is very difficult so I hope it makes sense. )

Please can anyone shed any light on this matter and if possible provide me with information to support my case, or advise me on where I can get further help? Or does anyone know if things have things changed in the past couple years to mean that I no longer count as living alone?

Many thanks for any help/advise you can provide.

Hi srq,

I'm afraid that we do not advise on IS.

As I am sure you will understand, it would be impossible to give accurate advice without having access to all your personal details, which is obviously not feasible on an open forum.

Please see :

Why can’t you answer a question about my specific claim?

And :

Where to get advice?

We can advise generically on any of the benefits on the links below.

Please see :

Welcome to Benefits and Work

You can access our FAQ’s in the yellow Spotlight Area, at the top above the forum, from here :

FAQ’s

You can search the forums for previously posted topics from here :

Searching The Forum


You can access our ESA Guides from here :

ESA Guides

You can access our DLA Guides from here :

DLA Guides

You can access all our B&W Guides from here :

All B&W Guides

Information on Personal Independence Payment, (PIP) can be found here :

Personal Independence Payment (PIP)

You are most welcome to repost here, with any queries regarding the above.

bro58