ESA carers allowance

Hi Denise thanks for the info he was at job centre this week and took the letters he got from Carers with him and showed them, he signed as normal and they said next time he goes in 2 weeks take letters with him again

Postcode checker says we have been a UC full service area since Dec 2016

Hi,

Yes this is where it gets complicated. As he's claiming JSA and has signed a JSA agreement then he would need to continue to sign on every 2 weeks and still look for work. He could tell his job coach that he's now a carer and his job search agreement could be changed to suite his carers role, but he would still have to sign on and look for work, as long as the work he does doesn't exceed £120 per week because of the Carers Allowance.

He can't claim Income Support because of the full service area he's in. If he changed to UC then there's a 6 week wait for his money and any other means tested benefits he claims like housing benefit, child tax credits would transfer to UC and become 1 monthly payment. It's catch 22 really.

I would advise him to speak to his job coach the next time he signs on and see where he stands regarding the job searches etc. Tell him to tell his job coach that he now claims Carers Allowance. If he's not planning on working anytime in the near future because of his carers duties then i'm afraid he'll have no option but to claim UC. Life is never easy!

Thanks Denise

                                    Is he able if claiming Carers allowance to claim UC instead of JSA because of his caring roll although I do realise he would have a waiting period also when he applied for Carers allowance because he has been doing it since April I advised him to tell them on the form was this wrong?

No problem. Yes he can claim UC instead of JSA because he's a carer and he can't claim Income Support. His claimant commitment for UC would be changed because he's a carer and he would be forced to look for work. If he claims housing benefit then this would stop once he applies for UC and then it would be added to the UC monthly payment. The Carers Premium he gets on top of his JSA would be paid in with his UC monthly payment.

The only thing that's not included with UC is council tax reduction and for this he would need to contact his local council to claim the reduction.

Carers Allowance takes between 8-12 to start payments.

Thanks again for your help I just don’t want him to be penalised because he is helping me and to be honest he is a big help

He won't be penalised because he's a carer. The UC credits monthly payments will be single claimant over 25 £317.82 or single under 25 £251.77, as i have no idea of age i put both amounts but only 1 applies obviously.

Then there's a Carers element on top £156.45

Then there's various other elements depending on circumstances, there's child element, housing element, disabled child element and a joint claimant element.

The Carers Allowance will obviously be deducted from the UC and Carers Allowance will then pay him seperately exactly like they will with his JSA/Carers Allowance.

If he claims housing benefit the best thing he can do is to use a Universal Credit calculator to see exactly how much per month he will get BUT there will be no work commitments like JSA, that's for certain.

If he claims housing benefit then he would need to tell his landlord that he's transferring to UC because of the 5-6 week wait before receiving his money. He would be able to have an advance loan but please do be careful when taking these because they will need to be paid back from future monthly benefit. This could leave considerably short of money each month.

Hope i've explained it well enough. UC is a mind field and i'm still in the learning process, unless the legacy benefits of JSA/ESA etc.

Thank you so much Denise for all your help today I understood perfectly what you were saying and I hope that if I need any further help I can come back to you?.

I know that the job centre advised him to take the letters to the local council so that they can sort his rent out as he may be entitled to further rebate

It is a mine field you are right but once it is sorted out I am sure he will be better off financially and stress wise thank you for all the help as without you I don’t think I could understand it all

You're always welcome Mick! Yes of course, shout it further help is needed.

As for the housing benefit, this will totally depend on his circumstances, IE how many bedrooms he requires, if he's under or over 35, does he have dependents, how much the local housing allowance is for his area, does he rent from social housing or privately? All this can very easily be answered by completely an online benefits calculator. Just google benefits calculator and one will pop up. In fact there's a benefits calculator available that will do a comparison between the legacy benefits like JSA/housing benefit verses Universal Credit. They are only as accurate as the info that's put into them though so bear that in mind too. Well worth doing, at least this way he'll know how much he could claim. Tell him to give it a go. 

Ok Denise I will and thank you

Thank you David and what if their claiming JSA at the moment

Mick for JSA he wouldn't be exempt from job searches. He would still have to job search for part time jobs.

As i said he can't claim Income Support because he's in a full UC area, so if he want to be exempt form the job searches he will have no option but to claim UC.

Ok Denise thank you

Hi david9482. Yes i would think so. 35 hrs a week is a full time job (whatever the job is) All that"s missing is the wage to go with it. 

Hi,

Yes, i agree it's a full time job but if claiming JSA is won't exclude them from those job searches completely.

Just a quick update Denise this morning my Cousin went to the job centre to sign on and explained again about being my carer, they said he should close his JSA claim down and then claim UC online he will get this weeks JSA will they owe him anymore as he has done as they said and closed claim they said he does not have to sign on or look for work as you said previously so now he has to claim UC that is the next step?

A UC claim takes 5-6 weeks before you receive your first payment. If the Carers Allowance has started he'll receive that as usual, if it's paid weekly. Some choose payments for that to be monthly.

If he claiming housing benefit then this will also stop and he will need to contact his landlord because no money will be received for that for 5-6 weeks either, he'll need to tell the LL that he's had to transfer to UC. Once UC starts then it will be all one payment each month.

Once he's started the UC online the other benefits will stop. He will have an appointment for his local job centre to take all of his ID as proof for his UC claim. If he doesn't take this then the UC claim will be delayed.

Council tax reduction isn't part of UC and that needs to be claimed seperately.

Lots of info on the internet about claiming UC.

Thank you for all your help