My Anxiety was asked: 'My friends have a middle aged son with mental health illnesses who can no longer work, what financial help & support is available for him? He is struggling more and we are getting older and are worried about him now and when we are gone' The first step is for him to acknowledge that he is ill and go to his GP for help. For mental illnesses the GP may treat the illness in terms of medication and/or therapy at the primary care level, or they may refer the person to secondary care and the mental health team for medication and therapy. He will need a medical certificate if he wants to claim sickness benefits. Once you have a medical certificate and there is medical evidence/records of an illness he could submit a claim for Employment Support Allowance , which is managed by the Department of Work and Pensions, like Jobs seekers Allowance. If the initial application satisfies the DWP they will make payments whilst they investigate and you attend a medical. If the person does not fully acknowledge their illness and discuss it openly they will NOT pass the medical. See my recent blog on Atos Medical Following the medical the DWP will write to advise whether their application has been accepted and how long before a review is required (6 to 24 months) Link to ESA claim details: https://www.gov.uk/employment-support-allowance/overview If someone is successful with an ESA application they may want to consider a Disabled Living Allowance which comprises of a care element and a support element. Link to DLA Claim: https://www.gov.uk/dla-disability-living-allowance-benefit Details of the benefits available for people who are ill can be found at my benefits post, click on each of the tittles to access more information from government websites. To help matters the government is changing both the ESA and DLA benefits at the moment. To be blunt if the person is not able to acknowledge their illness and seek and engage in medication and therapy treatment - then the benefits system is likely to fail them completely. More help can also be found at http://www.mind.org.uk/ and http://www.sane.org.uk/ www.myanxiety.uk 18th March 2013
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My Anxiety Blog from someone living with anxiety, depression and ulcerative colitis
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