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Can you delay your pension if you are claiming incapacity benefit?

Incapacity benefit stops when you reach retirement age, sorry.
The answer to this question has been sponsored by Red Fern Media Solutions.

my mother is on low rate attendance, but she now needs more help,we let the work and pensions know and they said apply for an increase, so do I just fill out the original form again or is there an increase of benefits form

Assuming the lower rate is for help or supervision during the day then to get the higher rate you will need to show that help is needed either more than once a night or once for more than 20 minutes or that your mother needs watching over all night. You can complete the whole form but we have a special form that we use for this purpose which is accepted by the DWP. We can send you a copy or we can actually assist with the claim.

how long does someone have to hold a full drivers licence for before they can get a car on dla. how much of my dla would i lose if i got a car?

As far as we know there is no condition that you have had to have a license for a certain time. If you use the motability scheme you lose most or all of the higher rate mobility part of your DLA.

I am receiving disability living allowance can I work a little hours and still get my disability living allowance?

Yes you can work and receive DLA providing the work does not conflict with the reasons why you get DLA e.g. working as a cook when getting the care part for being unable to prepare a meal. Although not a reportable change of circumstances you should still let the DLA know.

I am a full time carer for my mother suffering from severe alzheimers. I have had to give up my part time job what am I entitled to?

You may be able to claim carer’s allowance. However this will depend on your mother getting Attendance Allowance and you not earning over £100 a week or receiving other benefits. Also if you claim carer’s allowance and your mother gets pension credit she may end up worse off. Ideally both you and your mother need a benefit check – we can do this free of charge if you wish.

I have received a letter from the DLA stating that they are casting doubt about my eligibility re DLA.If you have any advice to offer I would be extremely grateful.

The DWP are entitled to make enquiries at any time about any claim. If you do not return the form then they can assume that you have no problems.You can ask the DWP to send you a copy of your last claim form if you need to refresh your memory about your answers. Or you can simply write "no change since last claim" on every page provided this is a true and accurate statement. The onus is on the DWP to prove their case and not for you to do it for them!

I am receiving incapacity benefit and was wondering if we are able to foster one child between age 8-11yrs and if it would affect my benefit the weekly amount would be £53,20 which is for food clothing and pocket money allowance for the child.

The fostering allowance is ignored as income. Please note that you cannot claim child benefit for any child you foster or child tax credits but you may be able to claim working tax credits depending on other income.

I have been receiving state pension since 2005 at a rate of £128/132 per month, pension service has now contacted me about HRP, from 1978 to 1989 I was receiving family allowance, do they owe me arrears and if so how much?

When working out your basic State Pension, the number of years you got Home Responsibilities Protection was taken away from the number of qualifying years needed to calculate your pension. But for a full basic State Pension, Home Responsibilities Protection couldn't reduce the number of qualifying years below 20. You also built up your additional State Pension if you qualified for Home Responsibilities Protection because you:

• got Child Benefit for a child under the age of six
• were looking after a sick or disabled person (including a child over the age of six)

So as you can see it is somewhat difficult to calculate any amount as there are a number of variables. It sounds like it may be worthwhile applying for it.