Accessing financial support
Having a long term mental illness can really impact your finances. It can stop you from working or make it harder to get into employment. Money worries can of course negatively impact on your mental health too.
There are some benefits you may be able to receive as a result of your disability, which are detailed below. Applying for these can be very difficult when you are already struggling so much in day to day life, especially with the uncertainty of whether or not they will grant you these benefits and the personal questions you may face. The Citizen's Advice Bureau offers advice on their page on how to apply for different benefits and they offer a detailed explanation of how to fill out the forms.
​
Another barrier to accessing help is fear the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) won't recognise your disability if it is a mental illness. In fact the main disabling condition for people in receipt of PIP (see details below) is "Psychiatric disorders", so you are not alone in accessing help for your disability and the staff at DWP should have experience of helping people with mental illnesses as a disability. The staff at the Department of Work and Pensions are given some training when it comes to mental illnesses so should be able to recognise and respect the struggles you may face and how they impact on your day to day life. If they don’t seem to be valuing and respecting your experiences you could always bring these guides to their attention to show that their official stance applies to your situation.
​
This is a payment that may cover some of the extra costs you incur as a result of your disability, it can amount to between £23.20 and £148.85 a week. In order to be eligible you must need help with daily activities such as cooking and eating, engaging with other people or reading and communicating .
​
This payment may support you if your disability stops you from working, it aims to offer financial support and personal help to get you back into employment if you can work. This allowance can be quite challenging for some to access as you can be sanctioned if you are unable to turn up to all of the job support offered to you.
Disability premiums are extra amounts of money added to your:
-
Income Support
-
income-based Jobseeker’s Allowance (JSA)
-
income-related Employment and Support Allowance (ESA)
-
housing benefit
​This payment can range from £16.80 to £65.85 a week for a single person. There are three different kinds of premium:
Disability premium can be awarded to someone receiving PIP or if you have been unable to work for a year, there is additional eligibility criteria on their website
​
​
Dealing with rejection
Only 56% of those with "psychiatric disorders" were awarded PIP payments the first time they applied for them, if you are one if there is some hope, you can try to overturn this, and the government's decision as to whether or not to award you payments does not make your disability any less valid or mean you are not worthy of support for it. Unfortunately under 4% of PIP and ESA decisions were overturned for those who have "psychiatric disorders".