Carers allowance waiting times

Bethjaneb

Hi everyone, hoping for some help with this my daughter applied for carers allowance back in June she had a one off payment at the beginning of September because she just started college and she had to send the form back once she started. She then phoned them probably around 2 months ago to see what was happening and was told it had just been sent to the decision maker, but it will be nearly 17 weeks now she's been waiting is this the norm at the moment and would calling them again make any difference???

poppy123456

Unfortuately, all she can do is ring them again. Full time students can't usually claim CA which could be why it needed to go to a decision maker.

Bethjaneb

Thank you its a bit confusing as her hours at college are only 15 a week, thought she might of least had a letter by now saying she isn't entitled to CA but I'll get her to call them again.
Thank you

bg844

The cut-off is 21 hours a week for Carer’s Allowance (including any amount of time she needs to study at home), anything over this would be classed as full-time and CA will cease the claim. I recently seen a thread elsewhere on this issue and it did get sorted in the end after 4 months with quite a big back payment. Fingers crossed she manages to get it sorted soon.

poppy123456

Although the time at college is only 15 hours, if the course is classed as full time then she may not qualify. Claiming from June to September would indicate she wasn't at college during that time (obviously summer break starts quite early for some students)

RetroRemix

I don't know how long the average wait times are at the moment, but I'm still waiting for a decision from when I applied back in June.

My circumstances are very different as the holdup in my case was caused by an old application still being open from when I cared for my Dad before he passed away in June. After he passed I put in a new application for CA because I care for my Mum too. (I cared for both my parents, but Dad had the worst health) Only recently has it been sorted out though because I rang at the beginning of December and asked them why it was taking so long, and then they told me they needed the hospital dates from when he went in before he passed away. This is despite me thinking the claim was closed in all that time, as they even stopped the CA payments and his pension and AA very soon after the date of his passing! (And we even paid money owed back)

So I gave them the dates (They had to ring me back), and they said that it would close fully in a short while, and then the new application would go through. This was at the beginning of December and I have not heard anything since then... so I can only hope that things are going smoothly now. I'm going to ask in a few weeks though if I haven't heard anything back.

I would advise to please keep calling and asking, it was the only way I knew that something was blocking the new application. I didn't get any letters or calls about it until I phoned up to ask myself, so please keep on top of it. I know it can be a while getting through, but it's truly the only way to know for sure.