Hi all,
I hope someone can help.
I am not a benefits scrounger. First point made.
Secondly…I have had my contract terminated due to medical capability (I’ve come to terms with it), and my final pay will be at the end of October. Without my pay there is now a massive hole in my household income. Me and my wife have a one year old daughter.
So, what benefits can I claim to try and fill the hole? I have started the process for PIP and ESA. Is there anything else?
Simon, aged 30 and 5 months. 
Hello
Housing benefit if in rented accommodation or mortgage interest if you have a mortgage. This may be savings / income based
council tax benefit may be available
see www.gov.uk for more information
if you have a mortgage do you have critical illness cover as you may be able to claim
speak to CAB if unsure as they can give more accurate information
paul
Hi Simon
I don’t really think it’s entirely necessary to start your thread with “I am not a benefits scrounger”. Neither are the majority of people generally, including on this forum. Just a small point.
However, I think the best place to start looking for info is on the CAB website: Benefits - Citizens Advice There is a benefits calculator on there that may help you to see what other options are open to you.
Keep in mind that some benefits are means tested (Housing Benefit and Council Tax Benefit as well as ESA unless you’ve paid enough National Insurance over the previous tax years). But others, as you’ve already pin pointed, PIP and ESA (the contributions based version) are not.
As you’ve said you are going to claim ESA and PIP, you should try to get yourself acquainted with the rules. Either by looking at the CAB info, or by actually getting a CAB advisor to assist you in completing the forms, or you could consider joining http://www.benefitsandwork.co.uk/ They charge about £20 for membership but their guides to ESA and PIP are excellent: correct and up to date.
Best of luck with it. The benefits world of today is a bit of a minefield.
Sue
I am sorry that you have immediate money worries to deal with on top of all the stress that goes with having MS in the first place. MS is a cursed condition for the way it cuts the legs from young adults just when they are laying down the foundations of life, establishing long-term relationships, building families, building careers, doing all the right things. I do not have any practical advice to offer, I’m afraid; I just wanted to say that I really feel for you and your wife.
Please do not feel the need to excuse the situation that fate has pitched you into, by the way. Your situation is (I would guess) exactly the kind of situation that William Beveridge had in mind when he shaped the principles of the welfare state. You and your family are what the welfare state is for. I doubt whether even the toughest contributor to the toxic sludge that forms the ‘comments’ section below Daily Mail on-line articles would disagree with me.
Hang on in there and hold your head high.
Alison