State Pension and Disability Benefits

If you are disabled and thus unable to work you may be claiming one or more of the following state benefits: Disability Living Allowance, Incapacity Benefit, Industrial Injuries Disablement Benefit or Severe Disablement Allowance. For information on these state benefits see State Benefits. When you reach State Pension Age you will usually no longer be able to claim Incapacity Benefit, nor Severe Disablement Allowance. However, if you are currently entitled to claim short term Incapacity Benefit at the higher rate, you may be able to continue receiving this benefit for up to fifty-two weeks. You may be entitled to continue receiving Disability Living Allowance and Industrial Injuries Disablement Benefit in addition to your State Pension, see The Basic State Pension. For advice on how your current benefits will be affected by reaching retirement age, contact the Benefit Enquiry Line on 0800 88 22 00.

If you reach retirement age, you should not find yourself in a worse financial position than you were before. If you were entitled to state benefits and are not entitled to a full State Pension, you should be able to get a top-up which will make up the difference between your reduced State Pension and your previous level of income when you were on benefits. You may find that your income is not very generous when you have retired, and feel that you need more financial assistance covering your expenditures. Perhaps you feel that you need extra money to offset costs incurred as a result of your disability. If you have needed assistance caring for yourself for six months or more, you should consider claiming Attendance Allowance. Attendance Allowance is a benefit paid to people over sixty-five years of age who are coping with a physical or mental disability, and is currently worth up to £64.50 a week. For more information see Attendance Allowance.