2 carers, 2 children not entitled to carers allowance ?

senDad

Hello All

Just joined the forum to ask this question but I do hope to stick around as it seems really helpful here.

So we have twins who are both autistic and claim middle and higher rate DLA respectively. For a couple of years, I claimed Carers Allowance for one of the children. In reality I helped a lot more than 40 hours per week for both of them. I can't remember which child I put down in the application form. None of the letters they sent every few months has the name either and I would feel very stupid ringing up and asking "which child am I caring for?" (!)

My mother-in-law has recently come to live with us to help out and we then applied for Carers allowance for her. Unfortunately it got rejected as they "have been unable to verify your caring activity as carers allowance is already in payment to another person for the person you have declared you are caring for."

So in reality there are are two disabled children and two carers each of whom is providing 50% to each child. Does this mean neither is entitled to Carers Allowance? Or should we arbitrarily nominate one child each but would I get into trouble for not knowing which one I nominated when it was just myself caring for them?

poppy123456

senDad said:

 Does this mean neither is entitled to Carers Allowance?

No, that's not what it means because you're already claiming carers allowance for one of them. I think you already answered your own question, you're mother in law has claimed for the wrong child, so she needs to claim for the other child.

Why would you get into trouble for not knowing which child you're claiming carers allowance for? I'm sure with twins it's very easy to forget which one you're claiming for.

Is your mother in law state pension age or above?

L_Volunteer

I would just like to add a warm welcome @senDad. It is great to see you have joined us.

Please don't hesitate to let us know if there's anything else we can do to support you. We are all here for you and listening to you 

senDad

poppy123456 said:

senDad said:

 Does this mean neither is entitled to Carers Allowance?

No, that's not what it means because you're already claiming carers allowance for one of them. I think you already answered your own question, you're mother in law has claimed for the wrong child, so she needs to claim for the other child.

Why would you get into trouble for not knowing which child you're claiming carers allowance for? I'm sure with twins it's very easy to forget which one you're claiming for.

Is your mother in law state pension age or above?

So firstly thank you very much indeed to L_Volunteer for such a warm welcome.

Things have moved on a little and I have this message sent to my mother in-law (redacted to "H"). She is close to pension age and has arrived from Ukraine thus is attempting to claim Carers Allowance as part of Universal Credit.

Is it really possible my carer's allowance claim is for both children? I actually rang the Carers Allowance number today and they confirmed I'm only claiming for one so I'm baffled at this message sent from the Universal Credit team in her journal.

Hi H, 

both G and V are registered as part of Michaels Carers allowance claim. Michael would need to contact carers allowance to remove one of the children from his claim.  As it stands you will not be eligible for the carers element of Universal credit 

Kind regards

Hayle

poppy123456

Carers allowance is not part of UC, that would be carers element. Carers allowance is different. Seems very odd that UC say you're caring for both children, which as you may have guessed it's not possible to do that. I agree with the person from UC that you need to ring carers allowance to sort the problem. I can only assume the confusion is because they are twins.

senDad

Thanks and yes I claim Carers Allowance and not UC. The mother in law claimed the carers element as part of UC which was rejected on the grounds that I'm already a carer.

I did call carers allowance today and they confirmed I am the carer for one twin. My mother in law applied for the other twin.

UC seems to think I'm the carer for both (!!).

Of course in reality we both live in the same house and care for both. Does the department expect that if she cooks a meal for one then the other shouldn't be invited to eat too?

poppy123456

senDad said:

Of course in reality we both live in the same house and care for both. Does the department expect that if she cooks a meal for one then the other shouldn't be invited to eat too?

Clearly not because that’s not really how it works in reality and I don’t think they think that at all. 

I can see the confusion with UC because they are twins and obviously have the same date of birth. 

senDad

poppy123456 said:

senDad said:

Of course in reality we both live in the same house and care for both. Does the department expect that if she cooks a meal for one then the other shouldn't be invited to eat too?

Clearly not because that’s not really how it works in reality and I don’t think they think that at all. 

I can see the confusion with UC because they are twins and obviously have the same date of birth. 

So I rang the carers allowance people again and they informed me that what Hayle from Universal Credit had said above was nonsense. They are either badly informed or deliberately trying to not pay the carers element to someone who doesn't speak english and is unlikely to be able to navigate the system by themselves despite looking after a severely disabled child. We have now decided to apply to carers allowance directly as I have found them to be quite reasonable.

This does though throw up an interesting question. I think theoretically at least, the law does not recognise two adults caring for two disabled children. One carer, one "careee" even when that doesn't fit the reality. 

poppy123456

senDad said:

We have now decided to apply to carers allowance directly as I have found them to be quite reasonable.

The only issue with this is that the carers allowance will be deducted in full from any UC entitlement, so there's no financial gain to claiming it. She still needs to make sure they include the carers element in with her UC.

senDad said:

This does though throw up an interesting question. I think theoretically at least, the law does not recognise two adults caring for two disabled children. One carer, one "careee" even when that doesn't fit the reality. 

That's nonsense. You are different adults claiming for each individual child.

senDad

poppy123456 said:

senDad said:

We have now decided to apply to carers allowance directly as I have found them to be quite reasonable.

The only issue with this is that the carers allowance will be deducted in full from any UC entitlement, so there's no financial gain to claiming it. She still needs to make sure they include the carers element in with her UC.

senDad said:

This does though throw up an interesting question. I think theoretically at least, the law does not recognise two adults caring for two disabled children. One carer, one "careee" even when that doesn't fit the reality. 

That's nonsense. You are different adults claiming for each individual child.

I think that's a bit unnecessarily blunt and also untrue. We share responsibilities 50:50.

calcotti

Poppy was saying that you are two adults, each claiming for one child. How you actually manage the caring responsibilities is irrelevant.

poppy123456

senDad said:

poppy123456 said:

senDad said:

We have now decided to apply to carers allowance directly as I have found them to be quite reasonable.

The only issue with this is that the carers allowance will be deducted in full from any UC entitlement, so there's no financial gain to claiming it. She still needs to make sure they include the carers element in with her UC.

senDad said:

This does though throw up an interesting question. I think theoretically at least, the law does not recognise two adults caring for two disabled children. One carer, one "careee" even when that doesn't fit the reality. 

That's nonsense. You are different adults claiming for each individual child.

I think that's a bit unnecessarily blunt and also untrue. We share responsibilities 50:50.

You clearly misunderstood what I said. It doesn’t matter who looks after who at home but for benefits purposes you each care for one child. 

chiarieds

I fail to see how poppy has been blunt. Understandably both yourself & mother-in-law are caring for both of your twins in practice. However, as regards Carer's Allowance or your mother-in-law's Carer's Element with her UC, then you are both seen to be caring for an individual child, which is true.