The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) manage welfare benefits within Wales.
Each benefit has rules about who can claim and why they are paid. For some benefits, whether you can claim may also depend on:
- How much money you and your partner have. These are called income-related benefits (or means-tested benefits)
- Whether you have paid enough National Insurance contributions. These are called contribution-based benefits (or contributory benefits).
Crucially any payment you receive from the Welsh Infected Blood Support Scheme will not to be taken into account when calculating your entitlement to the benefits discussed within this section.
However, you are still required to declare to DWP any payments that you receive from the scheme. If you do not make DWP aware about such payments, they will not be able to determine what money to ignore when calculating your entitlement, and your benefits may be affected as a result. For more information please see the detailed guidance here.
If you are registered with the WIBSS and you need advice or help applying for benefits, speak to your personal welfare rights adviser by contacting us here.
There are lots of benefits that could help you, but the system can be complicated. The benefits you may be entitled to depend on factors like your age, your income and where you live. Your specialist adviser will be able to talk you through the most suitable option for you and for further reference please see our handy guides below. Please note, these are for guidance only and not an exhaustive list
Help for those under pensionable age (link to Help for those under pensionable age page)
Help for those of pensionable age (link to Help for those under pensionable age page)
You should try to apply for any benefits you may be entitled to as soon as possible, or you may miss payments.
Disability benefits cannot usually be backdated to cover days or weeks before you applied. But most other benefits can be backdated, there is usually a limit of one month. Some benefits can be backdated by up to three months.
However there usually needs to be a good reason for the delay in applying. For example, because you were in hospital or waiting for a decision to be made about another benefit.
If your situation changes
It may affect any benefits you are getting if there are changes to:
- your income, savings or property
- the income, savings or property of a partner who lives with you
- the people who live in your home and their financial situation
- where you live
- your health.
It may also affect your benefits if you have a long stay in hospital or go abroad. This would normally only happen after being in hospital or abroad for four weeks or more. It only applies to certain benefits.
Not every change will affect your benefits. But you should tell all relevant services about a change in case it does.
Due to the recent change over to Universal Credit any changes to your situation could automatically lead to ending your current claim and therefore you having to migrate over to Universal Credit. Please see the Universal credit section under help for those under state pension age for full details on what benefits Universal Credit is replacing.
