The level of your award is not affected by state benefits, capital or income (other than your salary, insofar as it is used to calculate guaranteed income payment (GIP)). If you have already received compensation for the injury or illness through the civil courts, this will be taken into account when assessing your award. Payments received under the Armed Forces Pension scheme will also affect the amount of GIP.

Social security benefits – Under universal credit, a GIP or a survivor’s GIP is completely disregarded.

For pension credit, the first £10 of your GIP is disregarded, but the rest is treated as income. The same disregard applies to housing benefit, although local authorities have the discretion to apply a 100% disregard, which means that none of the GIP is treated as income. Most authorities apply the 100% disregard.

A lump sum paid under the Armed Forces Compensation scheme is treated as a personal injury payment for universal credit and is d