This information applies to England and Wales.
Disability premiums are added to your benefits because you are disabled.
There are 3 disability premiums:
- Disability Premium
- Severe Disability Premium
- Enhanced Disability Premium
These are separate amounts that could be added to your benefits.
How much money you receive will depend on which disability premium you get.
Disability premiums: What you’ll get (GOV.UK)
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- You must receive 1 qualifying benefit to be eligible
- You can receive more than 1 premium
- Disability Premium eligibility criteria
- Severe Disability Premium eligibility criteria
- When to get advice
- Enhanced Disability Premium eligibility criteria
- Universal Credit and contributory or New Style ESA are not eligible for premiums
- Work and disability premiums
- Means-testing
- Student finance
- Tax credits
- Check if you have a disability premium
- Find out what benefits you are receiving
- Backdated disability premiums
You must receive 1 qualifying benefit to be eligible
Each premium has different eligibility criteria. But you must get one of the following benefits to receive a disability premium:
- Income Support
- Income-based Jobseeker’s Allowance (JSA)
- Income-related Employment and Support Allowance (ESA)
- Housing Benefit
You are not eligible for any disability premium if you do not receive a qualifying benefit. If you start receiving a qualifying benefit, you could become eligible.
Use a benefits calculator to find out if you’re eligible for premiums or other benefits.
You can receive more than 1 premium
You can receive more than one disability premium at the same time.
For example, you may be eligible for Disability Premium and Severe Disability Premium.
Disability Premium eligibility criteria
You must be under State Pension age.
You also must be claiming one of these benefits:
- Disability Living Allowance (DLA) at any rate
- Personal Independence Payment (PIP) at any rate
- Armed Forces Independence Payment (AFIP)
- Working Tax Credit with a disability element
- Attendance Allowance
- Constant Attendance Allowance
- War Pensioners Mobility Supplement
- Severe Disablement Allowance
- Incapacity Benefit
If you’re eligible, you can add Disability Premium to:
- Income-based Jobseeker’s Allowance
- Housing Benefit
- Income Support
You cannot add Disability Premium to your income-related Employment and Support Allowance (ESA). But you can get Disability Premium at the same time as one or both of the following:
- Severe Disability Premium
- Enhanced Disability Premium
If you live with someone, including your child, this will not affect your eligibility for Disability Premium.
Check if you have a disability premium.
When you are not eligible
You cannot claim Disability Premium if you or your partner get Pensioner Premium. Pensioner Premium is more than Disability Premium.
Severe Disability Premium eligibility criteria
To be eligible, you must be getting one of the following:
- income-related ESA
- Disability Premium (if you get Income Support, Income-based JSA or Housing Benefit)
- Pension Credit (the benefit you get is called an ‘addition’ or ‘additional amount’)
Also, you must be claiming one of the following benefits:
- PIP daily living component at the standard or enhanced rate
- DLA care component at the middle or highest rate
- Armed Forces Independent Payment
- Attendance Allowance
- Constant Attendance Allowance paid with Industrial Injuries Disablement Benefit or War Pension
Check if you have a disability premium.
If you live with someone, including your child
If you live with your child under 18, this will not affect your eligibility for Severe Disability Premium.
But, if you live with your adult child or another adult, it may do.
In general, you cannot live with anyone over 18 to qualify for Severe Disability Premium.
There are exceptions. For example, if the adult you live with also gets a disability benefit like PIP.
These rules are the same if:
- someone moves in with you
- or you move in with someone else
Living with someone and Severe Disability Premium
Warning Carer’s Allowance or carer element of Universal Credit
You cannot claim Severe Disability Premium if your unpaid carer gets:
- Carer’s Allowance
- or the carer element of Universal Credit
This is the same whether they live with you or not.
When to get advice
Get advice if you live with someone who is a close relative and any of the following apply:
- they jointly own your home
- they are jointly responsible for paying the rent or mortgage
These things normally mean you will not be eligible for Severe Disability Premium. There are exceptions.
Check with an adviser if you are eligible.
Scope helpline
Enhanced Disability Premium eligibility criteria
You must be under State Pension age.
You must get either:
- Disability Premium
- or income-related ESA
You must also be receiving one of the following benefits:
- PIP daily living component at the enhanced rate
- DLA care component at the highest rate
- Armed Forces Independence Payment
You can also get Enhanced Disability Premium if you are in the Support Group for income-related ESA. This would happen if your Work Capability Assessment says you have limited capability for work-related activity.
Work Capability Assessment for ESA or Universal Credit
If you live with someone, including your child, this will not affect your eligibility for Enhanced Disability Premium.
Check if you have a disability premium.
When you are not eligible
You are not eligible for Enhanced Disability Premium if you or your partner are receiving Pensioner Premium.
Pensioner Premium is more than Enhanced Disability Premium.
Universal Credit and contributory or New Style ESA are not eligible for premiums
You cannot get a disability premium with:
- contributory or New Style ESA
- or Universal Credit
You cannot start claiming disability premiums if you are receiving Universal Credit.
Start claiming Universal Credit and your premium will stop
If you are receiving a disability premium, it will stop when you start receiving Universal Credit.
You may be eligible for transitional protection payments when you move to Universal Credit if you:
- were receiving Severe Disability Premium and have a change in circ*mstances like moving house
- or the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) sends you a letter to say you’re having a ‘managed migration’. You will need to make a new claim for Universal Credit.
Warning You will usually be better off not moving to Universal Credit
How much transitional protection you get depends on your circ*mstances.
You will usually receive more in a DWP ‘managed migration’.
You will usually receive less if you move to Universal Credit after a change in circ*mstances. For example, if you move house.
Transitional payments reduce as your Universal Credit increases.
Moving to Universal Credit and transitional protection
You can work out what you will get with an online benefits calculator.
Work and disability premiums
Disability premiums are because of your benefits. So, work only affects your disability premiums if it affects those.
For example, you receive Income-related ESA and Severe Disability Premium.
You start work, but do not go over the permitted work limits. This means:
- you work less than 16 hours a week
- you do not earn more than £183.50 a week
- your work coach agrees that you are doing permitted work
Your ESA will not change, so your Severe Disability Premium will stay the same.
Work and claiming benefits
Means-testing
Disability premiums are means-tested. This means that income and savings can affect your eligibility.
Savings and benefits
Student finance
Student finance also counts as income for means-tested benefits. This includes disability premiums.
How student finance affects your benefits
Tax credits
There are no disability premiums for tax credits. But there is a Disability Element and a Severe Disability Element for Working Tax Credit.
Working Tax Credit
Check if you have a disability premium
You do not normally have to claim disability premiums. If you’re eligible, they should be automatically in your benefit payment.
Contact your localJobcentre Plusif they are not paid.
You can also contact the office for the benefit you are claiming. Tell them that you think you are eligible for a disability premium:
- Income Support (GOV.UK)
- Income-related ESA (GOV.UK)
- Income-based JSA (GOV.UK)
- Pension Credit (GOV.UK)
For Housing Benefit, you must contact your local authority.
They might send you a form asking:
- what benefits you get
- who else lives in your house
The IS10 form is to apply for Severe Disability Premium.
Reporting changes
If you have a change of circ*mstances, report it to the office for the benefit you’re claiming.
For example:
- someone moves in with you
- someone starts claiming Carer’s Allowance for looking after you
Changes could affect your benefits. That means your disability premiums could change too.
If you are paid too much disability premium, you might need to pay it back in the future.
Find out what benefits you are receiving
Contact Jobcentre Plus to find out what benefits you are receiving.
Backdated disability premiums
Claims for any disability premiums can be backdated.
You should get a backdated payment for your premium if both these things are true:
- you have started receiving a benefit which means you qualify for a disability premium
- there was a backdated payment for that benefit
Contact the organisation that pays your disability premium. Ask them to backdate your disability premium if it does not happen automatically.
This will be:
- your local authorityfor Housing Benefit
- the DWP for any other benefit
Last reviewed by Scope on: 30/07/2024
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