compensation

Evening everyone, hope you all had a happy christmas and a great New year

Would really appreciate if anyone could give me some advice for a friend of mine, at the moment she is in a terrible state as she is not sure of what she should do.

Basically she has 7 year old twin girls, who are both autistic, so she left work to look after the girls, she receives income support fro looking after the girls

Recently she received compensation for a acident, which was no fault of her own, as she was a pedestrian walking home from work and a car mounted the pavement and hit her from behind, now she has a form from income support to fill in and in the form it asks if she has received any compensation from anywhere, does this mean they will stop her benefits, as she has used most of that money to build an extra room at the back of her house for her elderly mother who can no longer get up the stairs.

Any help would be truly appreciated

scruffs wrote: Evening everyone, hope you all had a happy christmas and a great New year

Would really appreciate if anyone could give me some advice for a friend of mine, at the moment she is in a terrible state as she is not sure of what she should do.

Basically she has 7 year old twin girls, who are both autistic, so she left work to look after the girls, she receives income support fro looking after the girls

Recently she received compensation for a acident, which was no fault of her own, as she was a pedestrian walking home from work and a car mounted the pavement and hit her from behind, now she has a form from income support to fill in and in the form it asks if she has received any compensation from anywhere, does this mean they will stop her benefits, as she has used most of that money to build an extra room at the back of her house for her elderly mother who can no longer get up the stairs.

Any help would be truly appreciated

Hi s,

We do not really advise on IS issues.

There are far too many variables here, to give a definitive answer.

Did your friend have a solocitor in her Personal Injury claim ?

Was your friend in receipt of benefits as a result of the accident, if so the DWP can claw back such benefits upto a maximum of 5 years prior to the settlement, by way of The Compensation Recovery Unit. (CRU)

If there was a solicitor involved he/she should have informed the DWP of an impending settlement.

Did your friend set up a Personal Injury Trust with the compensation?

If your friend has capital, assets or savings less than £6000, then this should not effect any IS payments. Between £6,000 and £16,000 you would have £1 deducted weekly for every £250 in excess of the £6,000. i.e. £12,000 = £6,000 in excess of the £6000 allowed, £6000 divided by £250 = 24, 24 X £1 would give a weekly deduction of £24.

Anything over £16,000 could result in no IS payment.

My best advice would be to provide all the information that the DWP have asked for, as you can see it is not a straighforward matter.

Your friend should really seek professional advice, see :

Where to get advice?

You could also research "compensation" and The DWP CRU on the internet.

bro58

It depends what benefits she is on. The DWP have a Compensation Recovery Unit which can claw back certain benefits such as IB/ESA and DLA if compensation is paid for an accident. However, if compensation is awarded for an accident then this should be included in any compensation awarded.

Your friend must have had a solicitor acting for her following her accident, so it should be them who is chasing this up, not your friend.

Details of Compensation Recovery can be found on the DWP siite at Compensation Recovery Unit

Thank you Bro58 and Jim Allison will definately pass this information on to my friend.

But can I also tell you guys that i posted a a couple of months ago in regards to my sister who is a schizophrenic, she had to attend a medical, took your advice on board and am happy to say that she passed her medical even though they would not allow us not to attend. so a huge THANK YOU to all you guys

scruffs wrote: Thank you Bro58 and Jim Allison will definately pass this information on to my friend.

But can I also tell you guys that i posted a a couple of months ago in regards to my sister who is a schizophrenic, she had to attend a medical, took your advice on board and am happy to say that she passed her medical even though they would not allow us not to attend. so a huge THANK YOU to all you guys

Hope all works out well for your friend, compensation and benefits "can" be complicated , and there are many other issues that may be pertinent, that I have not even mentioned.

That is good news regarding your sister, thanks for letting us know, and for your comments regarding B&W.

bro58