What benefits do you get when you’re ill?
Falling sick is one of the realities and uncertainties of life that one can never really run away from. Though no one never really gets happy when they become sick, it is comforting to know that you can receive some benefits when you are sick that can be used to settle your hospital bills giving you less headache of having to foot the bills from your pocket. Benefits for disability and benefits for illness are normally related. However there is a clear difference between the two and one cannot claim both at a time. The main illness benefit that you can claim is the Statutory Sick Pay. This is payment given by your employer when you fall sick for a period of not more than a month. It is thus dependent on whether or not you are employed meaning that unemployed persons can never qualify for it. For such people you can only rely on an unemployment benefit such as the JSA or income support. As for the disability benefit, there are a number of rates one should expect to receive and the calculation of the amount you can receive solely depends on the seriousness of your situation. People who are out of work and can never be employed again due to disability receive higher rates than those who are partially disabled. Before the 2011 disability benefits took effect, such people would be given long term incapacity benefits but nowadays this benefit is called the Employment and Support Allowance which is more directed to help disabled persons still be able to do various types of work and contribute towards paying for their cost of living. Higher pays of the ESA are still given to serious situations.
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