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:

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.

Turn2us benefits calculator

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:

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:

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

Turn2us benefits calculator

Warning Carer’s Allowance or carer element of Universal Credit

You cannot claim Severe Disability Premium if your unpaid carer gets:

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:

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:

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 circumstances 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 circumstances.

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 circumstances. 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.

Turn2us 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

Turn2us benefits calculator

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 local Jobcentre Plus if 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:

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 circumstances, 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.

Contact Jobcentre Plus (GOV.UK)

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:

Last reviewed by Scope on: 30/07/2024

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