Money advice
Here is a website offering popular tools and free, impartial money advice. It was set up by government. Click icon to browse. Lincolnshire County Council also offers information and advice on benefits and finance. It uses an 0300 number which is charged at the landline rate.
Citizens advice has several pages about money matters. See debt & money. Their Grantham office is at the Finkin Street.updated Alternatively, find your local advice centre.
Benefits
The National autistic society has a range of pages about autism-related benefits. Click icon to view. They are divided into age groups.
- For people of working age, Disability Living Allowance is being replace by Personal Independence Payment.
- Employment & support allowance is for people who cannot work or have a limited ability to work due to disability or health condition. See also govenment page. Neurodiversity champions aim to help to get recognition for difficulties with work. new
Carers FIRST is the new name for Carers connect. Click icon for their financial support pages. More broadly, find out what Carers FIRST has to offer and how it fits in with Lincolnshire Carers Service page.
See Support for carers about Carer’s Allowance for carers of adults.
Universal credit
Universal Credit is a benefit for people of working age to help with living costs. Click icon for some key points.
Cost of living
There are several ways to get help with household bills generally, depending on what benefits you are receiving. Also, Citizens Advice South Lincolnshire can help with fuel bills more specifically. Click icon to find out more.
National insurance
You pay National Insurance (NI) contributions to qualify for certain benefits and the State Pension. The UK government website is a good place to find the basic facts about National insurance. Click icon to start at the beginning.
- There are 4 classes of NI contributions. They count towards the benefits and pensions in this table.
- National Insurance contributions count towards the benefits and pensions in this table.
- These tables show if you might be eligible for NI credits, for example if you’re on Employment support allowance, Universal Credit or Carer’s Allowance.
The rules changed in 2016. Now you will usually need at least 10 qualifying years on your National Insurance record to get any new State Pension. .. You will need 35 qualifying years to get the new full State Pension if you do not have a National Insurance record before 6 April 2016. Click icon to find out what you need to qualify for a state pension.
Social care & support
The NHS website explains how to pay for care and support, and where you can get help with costs. Click icon to browse. See also: Support and benefits for carers.
Benefits news
- Get the latest on the benefits system in the UK. See Disability news
- Inquiry into disability benefits, led by Frank Field in 2017, ‘deluged’ by tales of despair. Several themes emerge from the testimony heard by the work and pensions committee. See article.
- Exemption from re-assessment for Employment & Support Allowance (ESA) is not as expected, in 2017. People with life-long or severe disability will only be exempt if they are deemed to be unfit for ‘work-related activity’. See article.
Housing
Housing benefits or Council tax support may be available if someone in your household is on a low income. Click icon for specifics.
Personal budgets
At age 18 social care support transfers from Children’s Services to Adult Social Care. Click icon to find out about personal budgets on the council’s Paying for care page.
You could have the money paid to you or the council could manage your budget for you. See the council Personal budget page.
Personal Independence Payment (PIP)
This is the replacement for DLA for people aged 16-65 with a disability or long term health problem. It has been in the process of being phased in since 2013.
- Citizens Advice offer a large number of pages about PIP, all neatly arranged to make it easy to find your way around.
- The National Autistic Society (NAS) has published an series of pages on the benefit. The link takes you to the main one.
- If you want to see what the government has to say about it, you can choose from Overview, Detail and News.
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