NIC's 4 Incapacity benefit

[JunkiMunki]

hi everyone,

Can someone please tell me what the NIC requirements and the tax years to be used to claim Incap benefit, I would be most greatful for the information

thanx in advance

[flumps1976]

You can't claim Incapacity Beneft anymore it is now Employment and Support Allowance.

From 1 November 2010, the first condition is that a person:

• must have paid Class 1 contributions (paid by employed earners and their employers) on earnings of 25 times the lower earnings limit, or 25 Class 2 contributions (paid by self-employed earners), or a mixture of the two, for one out of the last two (as opposed to three) complete tax years before the beginning of the relevant benefit year (the tax years run from April to April and the benefit year from January to December); and
  
• must also have worked for a minimum of 26 weeks during one of the last two complete tax years. The 26 weeks need not be consecutive but must fall in a single tax year. A person cannot reach the earnings limit by working for less than 26 weeks in one of the tax years to satisfy this condition. These contribution rules will be the same for JSA©.
  

The first condition is relaxed so that sufficient contributions paid in any one year are enough if the person was:

• entitled to Carer’s Allowance in the last complete tax year before the relevant benefit year;
  
• working for more than two years before the first day of the period of limited capability for work and was entitled to a disability or severe disability element of WTC during that period;
  
• entitled to credited contributions because s/he had been in prison or detention and a conviction was subsequently quashed.
  

Second condition – the person claiming must have paid or been credited with Class 1 or 2 contributions on earnings of 50 times the lower earnings limit in each of the two complete tax years before the start of the relevant benefit year.

In addition, different periods of limited capability for work may be joined or linked to form a continuous period. This means a person is treated as having had a limited capability for work throughout the linking period. Different periods are linked where they are not more than twelve weeks apart.

In certain circumstances, the linking period can be up to 104 weeks, for example where a person is a Welfare to Work beneficiary or was in full time paid work and getting the disability element of WTC and was paid either WTC or CTC at above the family element for the day before stopping work. The new period of disability must begin straight after finishing work.