I have an invisible physical disability and I've reached the age where I need some kind of income, but my ability to work is incredibly limited, and whilst I've looked into financial support from the government, their information on what I can and I can't apply for is incredibly confusing and I find that theres a lot of contradictions happening. I've read through about 6 pages and I'm still not sure what I should do.
Sam
Hi there,
If you have a disability there is some financial support you might be entitled to. It depends on how much your disability affects your day to day life, as well as how easy it is for you to get around and to work.
When the government pays money to help someone with their situation, these payments are usually called benefits. There are benefits for things like unemployment, housing, childcare and disability. Although they are called benefits, they are actually things you may be entitled to and have a right to claim.
The main benefits for disability in the UK are the Personal Independence Payment and Employment Support Allowance. The Personal Independence Payment (PIP) is for anyone with disabilities that affect their daily life. You can be in work and still claim the PIP as it is assessed based on how much your life is impacted by a disability. There are two parts to it - a daily living part and a mobility part which are assessed separately, so you might be eligible for one part but not the other.
Employment Support Allowance is to help if your disability affects how much you can work. There are different parts to this benefit as well and the number of hours you can work will determine if you're able to get this benefit or not.
Trying to understand everything can be complicated, but there is help available for you. There are places called Jobcentre Plus that you can go to if you need advice or to make a claim. If you don't want to go to the job centre then you might want to talk to Citizens Advice as they have lots of advice about benefits.
Our counsellors aren’t expert on this topic so they can't give you benefits advice, but they can be there to listen and talk about what things are like for you. If your disability is not visible it can cause you problems when people don't understand how it affects you. Talking about the best way to cope with this can help you feel prepared.
I hope this has helped.
Take care.
Sam
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