Posted , 8 users are following.
Hello,
I am wondering if I could claim Carers Allowance for caring for my son. I am a pensioner & claim PIP. No one is claiming Carers Allowance for him.
My son lives with me & claims PIP standard rate care. I do not physically care for my son, but I do care for him with emotional & support care.
0 likes, 19 replies
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Shooby Lilmem
Posted
Hi Lilmem, you're doing a great thing with caring for your son being a pensioner though I would look into attendance allowance and try the carers also, I'm not a great hand at all the benefits stuff but you can fill forms in online or phone the carer's and ask them to help you with them!. I hope this helps sorry if not xx
brian32790 Lilmem
Posted
Lilmem brian32790
Posted
Thank you for the replies. I have decided against trying to claim Carer's Allowance. I don't understand any of it & knowing my luck would more than likely end up losing out.
My care for my son is unconditional & on reflection I do not need to be paid to do this.
happydays Lilmem
Posted
denise15811 happydays
Posted
Hi,
I’m sorry but that’s not correct. A person can claim Carers Allowance and a disability benefit at the same time. If a person is claiming for a physical disability and claims Carers Allowance for someone with mental health or the other way around then there won’t be any questions. In fact there is an upper teir tribunal case law for this exact thing. DWP can not take away a disability award for this reason. If they did then the claimant would win at a Tribunal without any doubts at all.
Carers Allowance does affect income related benefits such as esa, jsa, pension credit and income support. They are over lapping benefits. It’s extremely complex but if both are claimed together you do any up being about £34 per week better off.
Lilmem denise15811
Posted
Thank you Denise for your post regarding my question about Carer's Allowance. The whole system is so complex & because of this I am not going to even try to claim Carer's Allowance for me son. The DWP probably make the understanding of the system so confusing, so that people give up before they even try. I do Google to see if I can read & understand the ins & outs of the system, but I come away even more confused.
You have said that it does affect income related benefits & I am in receipt of Pension Credit so the DWP could probably pay me Carer's Allowance & then deduct that amount from my Pension Credit. It is a minefield, so best I stay clear & carry on as I am.
It would be good if you could phone the DWP telling them your situation & asking them to tell you which would be the best way forward to either make a claim or leave well alone.
denise15811 Lilmem
Posted
No problem. Carers Allowance is probably one of the most complicated benefits to understand, apart from Universal credit.
As you're a pensioner if you claim state pension then you won't be Carers Allowance, what you'll have instead is extra money on your pension credit. The best best advice i can give you , because i don't know your situtation and how much money you claim etc it to ue a benefits calculator like turn to us. All you have to do is google this and it will come up. Links can't be posted here, which is very frustrating. Put all of your details into the calculator as if you're claiming Carers Allowance, then again if you're not claiming it. If all your details are put in correctly it will tell you what you can claim and how much you'll get, they're quite accurate because i recently used this and it had my money spot on down to the last £1.
If that's too complicated the a visit to your local CAB is adviced where they can then do a benefits check for you. At the same time they'll advice you on the extra you can claim on your pension credit for the Carers Allowance.
toni07149 Lilmem
Posted
as you don't care for him psyicly it would be best if you didn't claim it for him as it could be questioned on what you achely do for him but your son would be able to claim it for hisself
denise15811 toni07149
Posted
You can't claim Carers Allowance for yourself lol. Someone else can claim it for you, if they look after you for at least 35 hours per week and they don't earn more then £116 per week BUT you certainly can't claim it for yourself.
toni07149 denise15811
Posted
denise15811 toni07149
Posted
Yes, it's SDP or severe disability premium but not Carers Allowance. Not everyone is eligible for the SDP though because you must live alone, or be classed as living alone. If you live with a partner that also claims a qualifying benefit then you would be be entitled to this premium. It's also only paid on Income related benefits. I also claim the SDP for myself.
speedybird67 Lilmem
Posted
I am dealing with this situation at the moment so my info is correct as of today. I've been receiving DLA at Mid rate personal care for many years and my husband has been my carer. On Monday he received notification that he'd been awarded PIP at the standard rate. I literally hadn't got a clue what to do however, we did include the information in his PIP claim that he was my carer. What I wasn't sure of, is whether I should claim Carers Allowance for him so I called PIP and Income Support for advice. They advised me to claim Carers Allowance for him as we care for each other with our needs being different.(Mine is all physical and his is physical but mostly mental) They told me that we wouldn't be eligible for the Severe Disability Premium in our Income Support but financially we would be approximately £34 per week better off. I wasn't actually bothered which way we did it as long as I wasn't committing fraud or doing anything wrong.
I hope this helps
Nicky xx
denise15811 speedybird67
Posted
Hi Speedy,
I would disagree with that advice you've been given. Who adviced you this? OK, this maybe a little complicated to follow but i'll do my best to explain as simply as possible.
You're claiming Income Support because your husband is your carer and claim CA for you.
Instead of you both claiming Carers allowance for each other your husband can claim SDP for himself, while he continues to claim CA for you. This way you would be £62.45 per week better off instead of £34.95 per week.
The reason he can calin SDP for himself is because of the Income Support claim. SDP is paid ontop of Income related benefits and because you both recieve a qualifying benefit then he's entitled to the SDP.
You can't both claim the SDP because if you did then you wouldn't be able to claim Income Support anymore.
If you've already put a claim in for Carers Allowance, i'd advice you to cancel that by ringing them. Then for your husband to ring Income Support to fill out an IS10 form, which can be done over the phone. It will be backdated to the start of his PIP claim.
speedybird67 Lilmem
Posted
Hi Denise
thank you for your response.
My main worry was that I wouldn't be doing anything that was fraudulent so I firstly called the Carers unit, then PIP and today I called Income Support. I've never been in this situation before so wanted to make sure I was doing things correctly. I found it all very confusing tbh but thank you, I'll call income support again and carers allowance. I wasn't all together happy claiming carers for my husband as I am more disabled than him. I'll get back to you once I've spoken to the units again, thank you very much.
speedybird67 Lilmem
Posted
denise15811 speedybird67
Posted
Yes, SDP sill applies even though he's the main claimant. You claim as a couple. Claiming Carers Allance for someone when you claim a disability benefit yourself can sometimes cause problems if the reason you're claiming the Carers Allowance contradicts the reasons for the diability benefit claim. In your case because he also claims for mental health then that will be fine.
SDP is payable on all Income related benefits with a qualifying benefit alongside it. In your case the PIP and Income Support your husband claims.
I honestly wouldn't be advicing you to do it this way if i wasn't 1 million percent certain i'm correct. I claim benefits myself and also spend a lot of time advicing many people here.
You're also not doing anything fraudulent. You're simply both claiming what you're entitled to.