Has Rightsnet received a response on this item yet?:-

Qualifying criteria for the Severe Disability Premium
New HB guidance at odds with the regulations?
March 11, 2005

hi ... basically we got an inconclusive response ..... which i chased up back in march but then the trail went cold ..... i've sent a further message to the dwp today and will report back .... shawn

This is news to me. Can anyone tell me what this new guidance is?

Wed 19-Oct-05 01:24 PM by ken

We highlighted the new guidance in our March 11 2005 news story -

Qualifying criteria for the Severe Disability Premium - New HB guidance at odds with the regulations?

In brief, the guidance was inaccurate as it held that the qualifying condition for Severe Disability Premium (SDP) is that 'no one is entitled to nor in receipt of CA', an interpretation that could lead to a person being refused the SDP where their carer has an underlying entitlement to carer's allowance.

Paragraph 13(2) of schedule 2 to the HB (General) Regulations 1987, require that 'no person is entitled to, and in receipt of ... carer's allowance.'

Someone can be entitled to SDP if their carer is entitled to carer's allowance, providing s/he is not in receipt of the benefit - ie they have an 'underlying entitlement' to carer's allowance because they are in receipt of another benefit (for example, incapacity benefit) paid at a higher rate.

For gawd's sake!! I thought that we had put this one to bed some years ago.

response from the dwp's hb strategy division -


'The circular contained an error and was misleading. The correction was made via Amendment 6 to the Guidance Manual which now contains the correct interpretation. The word 'nor' was replaced by 'and'. Please accept our apologies for any inconvenience caused by this error.'