Careers and universal credit

squirell

Hi , so I used to claim careers allowance until 2022 when I went back to work, I reported this to uc when I came off it April 22, and again in December 22 when I noticed that the ca was still being deducted, after a interview the advisor assured me that it was all correct but to ring ca and make sure the account was closed and not suspended which I did & double checked with them again today that it is actually closed , today I’ve actually read my statement &  uc have been deducting the amount since may 22, I have wrote to them in my journal and called them and waiting for the case worker to get back to me, just in need of a bit of advice to where I stand will I get that money back ? Or am I to blame for not noticing it sooner ? 

Jimm_Scope

Hi @squirrell, welcome to the scope community I hope you're doing well, outside of this carer's allowance situation at least.

I don't think you can be to blame, you said you warned them in April and December of last year yet they've still deducted it?

I will move this to our UC category while I try to look for a more definitive answer on what you can do, or what the next steps are. We have members here who are very knowledgeable about the benefits system so hopefully they will know something without having to research it!

squirell

Brilliant thank you 🙏🏻 

yes, I’ve double checked all my statements and they deducted it every month since may 22 when I cancelled my claim, I reported it to them in April when I started a new job and in December I queried it , and then in January I had a interview and queried it with them verbally.

poppy123456

This is where UC and other benefit departments such as carers allowance, do not communicate well at all.

Very often when you contact Carers allowance to cancel the claim payments also continue. The same for UC and they continue to deduct the full carers allowance amount.

Has carers allowance ended for you now?

When claiming UC you do not need to claim carers allowance to be entitled to carers element. There's no financial gain anyway to claiming carers allowance at the same time. Though it does have it's advantages such as weekly payments and class 1 NI credits.

Do you still have caring duties? If so does your UC include carers element? (assuming you're not receiving the LCWRA element for yourself) Then you can claim carers element because there's no earnings limit to this like there is with carers allowance.

Any money owed should be paid back to you.

squirell

Thank you for your reply ,
I started receiving careers allowance before claiming universal credit … didn’t know there was such a thing as the careers element , my CA stopped in may 22 as I went back to work part time and was over the threshold for CA, in may 2022 I informed both uc and ca of this change, I still care and in receipt of dla for my son who has learning disabilities 

UC asked today to make sure they didn’t pause my claim instead of cancelling it .. which as I was sure it was cancelled and last payment was made beginning of may. But UC has me down as still claiming. 

poppy123456

Are you sure that deductions are still being made for the carers allowance? and you're not confusing it with carers element? As i advised, there's no earnings limit to carers element like there is with carers allowance. Carers element increases your maximum UC entitlement by £185.86/month. Please check your statements to see exactly what's included and what deductions there are.

squirell

Sorry I’ve just checked I do get the careers element in the breakdown, but I am still being deducted £302 for being in receipt of careers allowance 🤷🏻‍♀️

poppy123456

Thanks for checking that. I hope this is sorted soon but you will be owed everything back. Before they can pay what is owed they will need to recalculate your past statements. This will tell them how much you've already received and what you should have received. You will then be owed the difference between the 2.

Once your statements are recalculated they will replace your existing ones so you may want to take copies of those now.

chiarieds

Hi @squirell - have you said that you're caring for a disabled child, which may show as £146.31 a month? This would be on top of the carers element.

poppy123456

chiarieds said:

Hi @squirell - have you said that you're caring for a disabled child, which may show as £146.31 a month? This would be on top of the carers element.

If the child claims high rate care DLA  then they would qualify for severe disabled child element which is £456.89/month.

squirell

 hi, so after messages back n forth, i have been updated and will a receive a payment next week for the careers allowance that has been deducted from my UC, which i am happy with,  but UC has now deducted the career element from this amount  because "i stopped caring for someone"  i have stated that the only reason i came off CA  is because of going  back to work part time and this amount exceeded the amount allowed on CA, I receive middle rate dla for my son who i still care for and has continued to do so since i stopped CA  that is why i cant work full time. i didn't think that you needed to be on CA to get the careers element ? and that this element isn't means tested ? and i'm back to waiting for a reply and getting quite frustrated  

chiarieds

Hi @squirell - you are correct, so long as you would satisfy an entitlement to CA, you can claim the carer element without even claiming CA, as I see poppy also said above, & so long as no one else would be entitled to the CA for your son (& you yourself don't get the LCWRA element).

As you've said yourself, you need to now stress that your caring duties have remained constant.

With the carer element, any earnings you have would then be discounted.

You should also say that as you also claim the middle rate of DLA for the son you're caring for, that you should also be entitled to the disabled child element of £146.31 a month (this would be in addition to the carer element).

poppy123456

chiarieds said:

Hi @squirell - you are correct, so long as you would satisfy an entitlement to CA, you can claim the carer element without even claiming CA,

That’s not exactly correct. You don’t need to “satisfy an entitlement” to carers allowance at all. It’s irrelevant here. 

Carers element is part of UC and carers allowance is a completely different benefit. 

chiarieds

Appreciating that Carers allowance & the carer element of UC are different benefits, I was going off ADM Chapter F6: carer element https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1015113/admf6.pdf     which says,

''F6010 To qualify for an award of a carer element, the claimant must have regular and substantial caring responsibilities for a severely disabled person     WR Act, s 12(2)(c); UC Regs, reg 29(1)
F6011 A UC claimant will have regular and substantial caring responsibilities for a severely disabled person where they
1. satisfy the conditions of entitlement to CA        SS CB Act 92, s 70

F6012 The test at F6011 can be satisfied whether or not the claimant has made a claim for CA. Where no claim for CA has been made, the UC DM will have to consider whether the claimant could satisfy the conditions for entitlement to CA ''

squirell

Thank you both 🙏🏻 Im waiting to here back from uc, I do still care for my son and I’m not in receipt of the other element (Lwca) and yes I do get the disabled child element, it’s just confused me , they put a “to do “ list as stopped caring for someone which I thought that was the careers allowance with the date I stopped receiving it … and they’ve took it as I’ve stopped caring all together (wasn’t exactly clear) so I’m sure I should still get the careers element in my uc, and I’m assuming that they will back date it now as they taken that off the money that they have been deducting 👀

chiarieds

Hope you get it sorted about the carer element. I'd just wanted to also check that you got the disabled child element, so it's good to hear that you do. Kindly let us all know how you get on

poppy123456

chiarieds said:

Appreciating that Carers allowance & the carer element of UC are different benefits, I was going off ADM Chapter F6: carer element https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1015113/admf6.pdf     which says,

''F6010 To qualify for an award of a carer element, the claimant must have regular and substantial caring responsibilities for a severely disabled person     WR Act, s 12(2)(c); UC Regs, reg 29(1)
F6011 A UC claimant will have regular and substantial caring responsibilities for a severely disabled person where they
1. satisfy the conditions of entitlement to CA        SS CB Act 92, s 70

F6012 The test at F6011 can be satisfied whether or not the claimant has made a claim for CA. Where no claim for CA has been made, the UC DM will have to consider whether the claimant could satisfy the conditions for entitlement to CA ''

Thanks for that. It was the way you put it, as in so long as you would satisfy an entitlement to CA. Where as in the ADM it says satisfy the conditions of entitlement to CA. Which basically means that Carers element and carers allowance has the same criteria... (apart from the earnings rules) ie, must be caring for at least 35 hours per week. Apologies for the confusion.