War pension- Lower standard of occupation.

Gazza66 wrote:

Thank you crazydiamond.
Allowance for lower standard occupation is only payable at what percentage of a war pension?
Also if your in receipt of a service attributable pension does that stop you getting the allowance.
Thanks

Hi,

As other have said above, the mimimum War Pension Percentage Disability for claiming the Allowance for Lowered Standard of Occupation (ALSO) is a 40% award.

However there are other requirments as well in that the Accepted Disability must cause the cliamant to be permanently incapable of following their regular occupation or an occupation of an equivalent financial standard. Plus the amount of ALSO plus the War Pension received cannot be more than the 100% War Pension rate.

With regards to the second question, In April 2009, certain amendments were made to the law relating to War Pensions under the Service Pensions Order.

The changes made were because ALSO was classed as an 'income replacement' allowance. Hence it could not be paid (and overlaps) with certain other benefits/pensions.

The changes made were not retrospective, so anyone already claiming ALSO in April 2009 (and is continuing to receive it) could continue to receive it as well as the relevant overlapping income replacement benefit.

For anyone claiming ALSO after April 2009, as War Pensioners have found out, it can affect such as SAP. It also means ALSO cannot be paid at the same time as Incapacity Benefit or Employment and Support Allowance.

There is also a danger that if someone loses pre 2009 ALSO by for example taking a highly paid job and then finds they cannot do that job or gets made redundant etc, then technically no ALSO can be paid if the claimant applies for ESA.

Thus we now try to spell out the full implications of claiming ALSO post April 2009 due to its adverse affect on other benefits.

regards

Pete

hi pete sorry to ask another question but does the above apply for unemployment supplement as well

pac100575 wrote:

hi pete sorry to ask another question but does the above apply for unemployment supplement as well

Hi Pac,

No, Unemployability Supplement (Unsupp) has it's own set of rules/requirments seperate from ALSO (however ALSO and Unsupp cannot be claimed concurrently).

To claim Unsupp, post April 1979 one needs to be assessed at the 60% War Pension rate (prior to April 1979 it was 20%) and aged below 65 at the time of claim. Also the accepted disability must be so serious it makes one unemployable (i.e. unable to follow a remunitive occupation for a prolonged period generally accepted as two or more years). The award of Unsupp is one of the few 'lay' awards made by a decision maker but they can refer to SPVA medics for advice.

Unsupp does 'overlap' with Incapacity Benefit, ESA and Income Support on the grounds of disability, so these cannot be claimed if a person is claiming Unsupp.

Unsupp carries with it a number of additional allowances for a spouse/children.

That is a quick 'resume' of Unsupp. If you have any further indepth queries I will be happy to answer them if I can (or can use the mountain of reference material I have).

Pete

thanks for the quick reply pete

pete17971 wrote:

pac100575 wrote:

hi pete sorry to ask another question but does the above apply for unemployment supplement as well

Hi Pac,

No, Unemployability Supplement (Unsupp) has it's own set of rules/requirments seperate from ALSO (however ALSO and Unsupp cannot be claimed concurrently).

To claim Unsupp, post April 1979 one needs to be assessed at the 60% War Pension rate (prior to April 1979 it was 20%) and aged below 65 at the time of claim. Also the accepted disability must be so serious it makes one unemployable (i.e. unable to follow a remunitive occupation for a prolonged period generally accepted as two or more years). The award of Unsupp is one of the few 'lay' awards made by a decision maker but they can refer to SPVA medics for advice.

Unsupp does 'overlap' with Incapacity Benefit, ESA and Income Support on the grounds of disability, so these cannot be claimed if a person is claiming Unsupp.

Unsupp carries with it a number of additional allowances for a spouse/children.

That is a quick 'resume' of Unsupp. If you have any further indepth queries I will be happy to answer them if I can (or can use the mountain of reference material I have).

Pete

with regards unsupp and IB you can still have from the old days your "serps" part of IB and un supp I get an extra £32 a week as long as I get IB and another chap on here gets £20 something a week.. the amount you get depends on tax paid in the 2 years before you got unsupp

now my question is on IB I dont have to have medicals or fill in IB50s as exempt ... if I pass the ESA test as I expect and get in support will I still get my extra £32 a week as ESA cant be paid with unsupp ? if it cant I am worse off .. when they said no one would be

originaldave wrote:

pete17971 wrote:

pac100575 wrote:

hi pete sorry to ask another question but does the above apply for unemployment supplement as well

Hi Pac,

No, Unemployability Supplement (Unsupp) has it's own set of rules/requirments seperate from ALSO (however ALSO and Unsupp cannot be claimed concurrently).

To claim Unsupp, post April 1979 one needs to be assessed at the 60% War Pension rate (prior to April 1979 it was 20%) and aged below 65 at the time of claim. Also the accepted disability must be so serious it makes one unemployable (i.e. unable to follow a remunitive occupation for a prolonged period generally accepted as two or more years). The award of Unsupp is one of the few 'lay' awards made by a decision maker but they can refer to SPVA medics for advice.

Unsupp does 'overlap' with Incapacity Benefit, ESA and Income Support on the grounds of disability, so these cannot be claimed if a person is claiming Unsupp.

Unsupp carries with it a number of additional allowances for a spouse/children.

That is a quick 'resume' of Unsupp. If you have any further indepth queries I will be happy to answer them if I can (or can use the mountain of reference material I have).

Pete

with regards unsupp and IB you can still have from the old days your "serps" part of IB and un supp I get an extra £32 a week as long as I get IB and another chap on here gets £20 something a week.. the amount you get depends on tax paid in the 2 years before you got unsupp

now my question is on IB I dont have to have medicals or fill in IB50s as exempt ... if I pass the ESA test as I expect and get in support will I still get my extra £32 a week as ESA cant be paid with unsupp ? if it cant I am worse off .. when they said no one would be

Hi Dave,

Obviously yours is a retrospective entitlement as Unsupp does now completely overlap with IB, hence keeping my response to Pac's query contempoary.

Anyway Yes I am aware of that problem and am raising it through channels directly through the Veterans Advisory and Pensions Committee I sit on as I have received a number of enquiries from War Pensioners locally with similar issues.

However I do fear your and other War Pensioners similar cases may take some time to resolve as the query is just one of a number of issues on a broader front that potentially could have far reaching consequences.

I will keep you posted when I hear something.

Pete