LCWRA has made us worse off?

whataday

I'm baffled! My son recently received LCWRA which got used to assess his finances for social care during the day.  Every penny of the LCWRA is now being used towards making payment to the council for that.  During the assessment we filled out an expenditure form on our sons behalf.  We were not allowed to include rent in this as they said he is not on the tenancy only myself and husband.  It ended up that the full amount of his LCWR is being used to pay for his social care during the day.

The same council are now using that LCWRA income again for our housing benefit and council tax which has now been reduced by approx £3k a year.  I contacted the housing benefit and told them that they were using the same income twice for different benefits.  They already took all of it away then are asking for more of the same money when there is none left to give!  This puts us further into poverty. I really don't understand this.  The only thing we can do now is to cancel our sons claim.

Has anyone else experienced this?  

whataday

I'm baffled! My son recently received LCWRA which got used to assess his finances for social care during the day.  Every penny of the LCWRA is now being used towards making payment to the council for that.  During the assessment we filled out an expenditure form on our sons behalf.  We were not allowed to include rent in this as they said he is not on the tenancy only myself and husband.  It ended up that the full amount of his LCWR is being used to pay for his social care during the day.

The same council are now using that LCWRA income again for our housing benefit and council tax which has now been reduced by approx £3k a year.  I contacted the housing benefit and told them that they were using the same income twice for different benefits.  They already took all of it away then are asking for more of the same money when there is none left to give!  This puts us further into poverty. I really don't understand this.  The only thing we can do now is to cancel our sons claim.

Has anyone else experienced this?  

poppy123456

There's 2 seperate things here. The contributions towards the care he receives is completely different to the deductions for your housing benefit.

I can't advise about the deductions for the care, someone else maybe able to advise with that.

For your housing benefit then if he's under 25 and has no earnings then there will not be any deductions for your housing benefit. If he's 25 and older then there's a non dependant deduction of £18.10/week. Unless either yourself or a partner you live with are claiming a qualifying disability benefit yourself, such as PIP daily living, DLA mid/high rate care or ADP daily living. See link. https://england.shelter.org.uk/housing_advice/benefits/housing_benefit_deductions_when_living_with_non_dependants

Does your son claim PIP or ADP? If so this is where Universal Credit is a lot more generous. There would be no non dependant deductions regardless of their age if they are claiming either daily living PIP or daily living ADP. See link. https://www.entitledto.co.uk/help/non-dependants

I can't advise with council tax i'm afraid because all local Authorities have their own rules.

Hannah_Alumni

Hello @whataday

Welcome to the community. That sounds very stressful, I am so sorry you are having to go from pillar to post to get support. I would encourage you to reach out to Citizen's Advice. I'd also have a look at a benefits calculator, to see if there is anything else you may be able to claim to help  

poppy123456

Duplicate thread here. https://forum.scope.org.uk/discussion/112027/hi-my-name-is-whataday#latest

whataday

Thank you poppy, yes my son is 22 and receives PIPS. Does that makes a difference? On shelter it says under 25 on UC then no deductions, but he gets PIPS and UC with LCWR.  All the LCWR is used to pay for social care.  On our housing benefit he is down as a non dependant and have included his pips and uc &lcwr in in the weekly income section with a deduction of £41.60 weekly then similar with council tax.

I'll have a look at the UC calculator as suggested and see what that says, thank you! 

poppy123456

As he's under 25 then there should be no non dependant deductions for HB for him. Sounds to me like you filled out the form incorrectly for your housing benefit. 

I'd advise you to tell them that he's under 25 and claiming UC with no earned income...and tell them that there should be no deductions for him.  They will highly likely ask you to send them a copy of one of his latest UC statements. 

LCWRA and PIP are irrelevant here.

I can't tell you if the contributions he's paying towards his care is correct though.

whataday

This isn't a new claim, we were already receiving housing benefit they just sent us a new benefit decision notice.  When I called earlier they said it was because he was receiving LCWRA but from the chart on shelter I can work out the they are including both his Uc and LCWR to get the £41.60 deduction.  Clearly someone has made a mistake and then the next person is following that mistake on.  Thanks for your help, I will call them back on Monday and refer them to the above info.

poppy123456

I didn't think it was a new claim because new claims for housing benefit are no longer possible for working age people. Unless you're living in either temporary or supported housing.