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Carers allowance random check (no payment for 2 and a half months)

lovesponge1982

Hi im currently a full time carer for my mother back in march i received a phone call from the carers allowance centre which i missed but i immediately rang them back i was told it was a random check and a form would be sent out to me

The form had to be signed by me and my mother basically stating that i was still caring for her for 35 hours a week which i am and more, i returned the form and when the Monday when i usually receive my CA there was nothing and since then ive had nothing and its now the last week of may im still getting UC minus the deductions for claiming carers but now im struggling

Ive called the centre several times and mainly just got its still with "the back office" i know they are busy but over two and a half months is a stretch is this normal ? As far as i know ive not breached anyrules and either way i still have to look after my mother but im finding this very stressful and im feeling victimized for putting my life on hold to do something good

Any advice would be greatly appreciated 👍

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poppy123456

We've had a few threads here recently who are having the same problems. They must be doing checks on some people. The issue you have when claiming UC with carers allowance is If CA stops they do not communicate with UC so UC still continue to take the deductions.

There's no financial gain to claiming CA and UC at the same time. The only advantage to claiming both at the same time is that for CA you receive class 1 NI credits but for UC you only receive class 3, which are only useful towards your state pension.

For this reason it maybe worth cancelling your CA claim and just continuing with UC but only you can decide what you want to do.

Can I please just check that your UC also includes the carers element? Assuming you're not receiving the LCWRA element for yourself. Even though it's deducted in full UC do not usually automatically include carers element in your maximum entitlement.

lovesponge1982

If im reading my payments right im getting standard allowance then it says carer which is 185 pound but then deductions of over 300 for claiming carers allowance

If i stop my carers tho wont they expect me to look for work ? Because thats not an option right now as much as i miss graft

Ur definitely right tho about the unfair deductions and if im been investigated for something wouldn't my uc be stopped to ?

lovesponge1982

Any idea how long they take to resolve from what youve seen ?

poppy123456

You will not be expected to look for work because of claiming carers element and you have no work commitments.. You do not need to be claiming carers allowance to be entitled to carers element.

Your UC won't stop because it's a separate benefit to CA. Are you working and receiving earnings at all?

lovesponge1982

No im not working and no other earnings

I do have a little savings but no where near the threshold

So how do i go about switching to just the uc ? Im assuming the deductions then stop ?

poppy123456

You don't need to switch to UC because you're already claiming it. You need to cancel your CA claim by ringing them. Then you need to report the changes to UC and tell them you've cancelled your CA. You will be owed some money due to the deductions.

lovesponge1982

Thats a definite possibility im willing to wait a little longer but not much and looking at some threads on here i could be waiting months more its very distressing....

lovesponge1982

So today I've received another copy of the exact same form declaring that im caring for my mother for 35 plus hours and had to be signed by me and her whats going on ?

poppy123456

I’m afraid I can’t answer that question, you will need to ring carers allowance to ask what exactly is going on.

lovesponge1982

So i did just that turned out I'd signed the wrong part of the declaration i feel like an absolute idiot 😭

Thanks so much for your advice tho i really appreciate it ☺️

poppy123456

You're welcome. That's frustrating! Though they could have told you that when you spoke to them previously!

lovesponge1982

Or used a little discretion and just accepted the signature bloody red tape....

lovesponge1982

So a follow up to this after nearly 6 months, still not received a penny and im really struggling ive made many phonecalls and was assured my form was correct this time by at least 3 different advisors....so i woke up today to a letter and to my shock it was the same form again !!

I broke down in tears as the stress was to much for me then when i pulled myself together i rang carers allowance again to find out why it had been returned again the advisor was very kind and looked at my notes and form and said theres nothing no reason why it had been returned and she checked them form and said to her it looks fine and shes very confused with it so she escalated it to urgent and said hopefully its a mistake but im not getting my hopes up...

My friend suggested i raise an official complaint as my treatment has beem horrible but i dont know as im now in debt and if i dont get backdated payment im going to be in trouble for a long time but i cant just abandon my mother....

Anyway just wanted to update

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