6. What about special expenses?
Extra heating—you can get 80p a week extra if you or your wife cannot get out of the house much because of ill-health. You can get the same amount if your rooms are difficult to heat. Higher amounts (£1.60 or as much as £2.40 a week) are paid if you or your wife cannot leave your bed or house or are seriously ill and need extra heating, or if your rooms are extremely difficult to heat.
Central heating—you can get an extra amount of between 40p and £1.60 a week if you have central heating.
If your supplementary allowance is based on the long-term amount in para- graph 3, then it will include 50p towards the cost of any other special expenses apart from heating and if you get allowed for any of the following special expenses, it will be increased by the total amount of the allowances less 50p. But no reduction will be made if your supplementary allowance is based on the "ordinary" amounts.
For a special diet-an allowance of 90p will be made if your doctor has advised you or your wife to follow a special diet. But if you have one of a number of particular illnesses, such as diabetes or ulcers, the allowance will be £2.10.
For laundry-a special allowance will be made if you cannot do your washing or drying in your own home and have to send it to the laundry (or launderette), for example because of illness, incontinence or disability. The allowance will be the weekly amount you pay less 10p.
For domestic help if you need domestic help allowance will be made for the cost provided it is reasonable-but not for window-cleaning or errands.
You can get help with some other special expenses. If you want to know more, ask your local social security office.
7. What about the money I already have?
Your supplementary allowance is paid on top of any other money you may have. So it is affected by the other money you get, such as sickness benefit or maintenance payments. But in working out your supplementary allow- ance, the local office will not count in:
the first £4 (£2 if you are unemployed, £6 if you are a lone parent) of what is left of your weekly net earnings from any part-time work after taking away your fares to work and any other necessary expenses such as child minding
the first £4 of your wife's weekly net earnings
the first £1 a week of an occupational pension
the first £4 a week of the total amount of any other money you get such as a disablement pension or payment from a charitable fund, but if you have an occupational pension as well as other money then no more than £4 altogether
the full amount of any attendance allowance or mobility allowance.
8. What happens if I have savings?
It depends on how much you have. If your savings are less than £1,250 they will make no difference to your supplementary allowance. If they are too high for you to get a supplementary allowance, you may be able to get one
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