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15 April 2011
If there is a question that you have been puzzling over why not suggest a faq.
Q1. Will a student loan affect my disability living allowance (DLA) and incapacity benefit (IB)?
Q2. Is it possible to get housing benefit (HB) to help pay for student halls?
Q3. What is employment and support allowance?
Q5. Can I claim employment and support allowance?
Your IB is not affected by any student grant or loan you receive but if you are under 19 your entitlement to IB may be affected by the type and hours of tuition you receive. If you are under 19 you can get IB as long as you attend classes or periods of supervised study adding up to less than 21 hours a week. Lunch breaks, breaks between lessons, free periods, and periods of private (unsupervised) study or homework do not count. If you attend classes for 21 hours or more each week, you may still qualify for IB if the extra hours of classes would not be ‘suitable for persons of the same age and sex who do not suffer from a physical or mental disability’.
When adding up the hours of instruction, ignore the time spent on any course that would not routinely be followed by a non-disabled person of the same age or sex.
This rule does not apply if you are age 19 or over.
To be entitled to IB you are currently accepted as being incapable of work and assessed under the ‘personal capability assessment’ (unless you are in an exempt group). When beginning study you must declare this as a change of circumstances. This could trigger a review of your benefit, but does not necessarily mean you will lose it. However if there is a doubt about your being incapable of work you might now be assessed under the employment and support allowance work capability assessment. for more information see our Factsheet F31 - employment and support allowance.
Between October 2010 and March 2014 existing incapacity benefits claimants (those on incapacity benefit, severe disablement allowance and income support on disability grounds) will be reassessed under the employment and support allowance (ESA) Work Capability Assessment (WCA) instead of the Personal Capability Assessment. For more information on the see our ib migration page.
Your DLA is not affected by your student loan. If your college provides care and assistance for you, the college authorities may claim some or all of your DLA care component from you towards their costs. If you are living in a residential college, your care component will stop for the time you are there, if it counts as ‘special accommodation’.
If you are a full-time student you can get HB to help pay for student halls providing you are entitled to receive HB for other types of accommodation. You will fall into this category if you are a disabled student who is incapable of work, are in receipt of income support, a lone parent or receiving disabled students’ allowance because of deafness.
If you are a part-time student, but would be eligible for HB as a full time student and are renting accommodation from your educational establishment you may also get HB (note that there are special rules where you are on income support or Jobseeker’s Allowance).
Employment and support allowance (ESA) is a new benefit paid if your ability to work is limited by ill health or disability and you are claiming after 27 October 2008. It replaces both incapacity benefit (IB) and income support (IS) paid on the grounds of incapacity for new claims from that date.
You can find out more about ESA and how it affects students by going to our employment and support allowance page.
Between October 2010 and March 2014 existing incapacity benefits claimants (those on incapacity benefit, severe disablement allowance and income support on disability grounds) will be reassessed under the employment and support allowance (ESA) Work Capability Assessment (WCA) instead of the Personal Capability Assessment. For more information on the see our ib migration page.
Students can claim employment and support allowance but the rules are stricter than for incapacity benefit and income support on grounds of incapacity. For more information see our Factsheet F31 - employment and support allowance.
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