Minimum Income Guarantee

Why might it be of interest?

When a young person receives an adult social care package they may have to make a contribution towards the package.  The contribution is not based on the size or amount of the package.  It is based on the MIG – set every year by the government – plus additional allowances – some set by the government and some are set by the local authority.

When the MIG and allowances are added up it is the different between this figure and the total weekly amount of your benefits that can be required as your contribution towards your social care package.  This is not optional – if you don’t want to pay the contribution you will not get the care package.  One or two local authorities do not ask for a contribution but most do.

For some people the amount of their support package is not significantly more costly than their contribution so they may well decide not to take the package and to pay for their care directly.

People receiving local authority-arranged care and support other than in a care home need to retain a certain level of income to cover their living costs. Under the Care Act 2014, charges must not reduce people’s income below a certain amount, but local authorities can allow people to keep more of their income if they wish. This is a weekly amount and is known as the Minimum Income Guarantee – MIG.

These figures are all for a single person.  I am not including figures for more specific circumstances, such as being responsible for a child as that is a situation very unlikely to occur among the young people this information is intended for.

These figures are allowances against your actual income from benefits – this isn’t money you actually receive but money you are allowed to keep from your benefits before making a contribution towards your social care package.  (2024-2025)

Disability premium:  you get this allowance if you are, or the LA considers you would be, in receipt of income support

Enhanced disability premium:  you get this allowance if you are in receipt of PIP enhanced daily living component or DLA high rate care

For reference – Income support:  this is a legacy benefit so you can no longer apply for it.  A person would have been eligible for income support if all of the following apply:

• They have no income or a low income
• Less than £16,000 in savings
• They are not in full-time paid work
• They are between 16 and pension credit qualifying age
• They live in England, Scotland or Wales, and
• They are unable to work and receive statutory sick pay, incapacity benefit or severe disablement allowance (both incapacity benefit and severe disablement allowance are legacy benefits themselves.  They were replaced by Employment Support Allowance which is also now a legacy benefit – young people claim Universal credit.  I don’t know for sure but I think this point would be met if a young person is deemed to have a limited capability for work (LCW) or limited capability for work related activities (LCWRA))

It is likely that most, if not all, of our young people would be eligible for the single person allowance and both disability premium allowances.

Local Authority disability allowance:  Some, not all, local authorities have an automatic amount they will allow for disability related expenses with no evidence required.  However, if you believe your disability related expenses are higher you can request a review but you will have to provide evidence of your expenditure and how it relates to your disability needs.  You have to be in receipt of PIP daily living component or DLA care component to be eligible for the automatic allowance.

Disability Related Expenditure:  all those expenses that you have because of your disability which are not included in your support plan.  There is a long, long, list of potential DRE but councils will differ in what they will and won’t allow as a DRE.

Inclusion London have a DRE calculator which will help you work out your weekly DRE expenditure (some costs might be monthly or annually, for example) and generate letters with the information to send to your LA:

https://www.scrapcarecharges.com/dreguide

Automatic allowances:  LB Richmond automatically allow £20 per week on top of your minimum income guarantee total.  Other local authorities have a different amount – or no automatic allowance.

Example – approximate figures

A young person under 25 living in LBRuT who is entitled to both disability premiums would be able to keep £180.30 of their benefits before making a contribution:

Basic under 25:                 £87.65

Disability Premium:           £48.40

Enhanced DP:                   £23.85

Total:                                £160.30

Richmond allowance          £20

Grand Total:                      £180.30

A young person over 25 would keep £203.25 of their benefit income before making a contribution:

Basic over 25:                   £110.60

Disability Premium:           £48.40

Enhanced DP:                   £23.85

Total:                                £160.30

Richmond allowance          £20

Grand Total:                      £203.25

The amount of the contribution is the difference between the above figure and the total amount of their PIP and UC (or ESA).  If a young person is on higher rate PIP and in the LCWRA group for UC (or support group for ESA) their weekly income from both benefits is in the region of £270 per week.  That would mean a contribution of about £90 if they are under 25 and about £70 if they are over 25.

These are approximate figures as the amount of benefit a young person receives is different depending on whether they are on UC or ESA.

If they can make a case for additional disability related expenses they may be able to reduce the contribution.  You might like to refer to R-Disability Related Expenses for further information.

Disregards

The LA can, and does, disregard certain expenses.  A disregard is money that a person is allowed to keep – so effectively is added to their MIG.  For example, a young person may be able to demonstrate that they have disability related expenses in excess of £20.  Or, if they are in supported living they may make a contribution to cover household costs not covered by housing benefit.  A young person living at home could claim to pay their share of council tax – which would then be disregarded.

So, extending our example from above, if the young person was over 25 and they made a contribution of £26 towards their supported living household expenses they would get to keep £229.25 of their benefits before making their contribution to their social care package.

Where a local authority makes an automatic allowance for disability related expenses, if you want to claim a higher amount you don’t also get the automatic allowance.  For example LB Richmond automatically allows £20.  If you can demonstrate that your disability related expenses are £35 a week you should be allowed to have that amount disregarded.   What you won’t get is the automatic £20 plus your £35.