Carers Allowance or carers disability premium?

littleacorn

My husband was my carer until October 2023 when he passed away. In October my sister took over this responsibility and applied for Carers Allowance to be told in May after many phone calls that she is not entitled to it as she claims ESA contributions based with a small amount of UC as they are overlapping benefits. As someone who has very little understanding of the benefit system she now has to apply for carer element of UC. What a total waste of time and lost benefit payments due to not understanding the system. Surely as both are managed by DWP they should be talking to each other and not have to forfit the lost payment money and make a new claim under UC!

Any help will be greatfully received.

poppy123456

Sorry for your loss. If your sisters UC includes the LCWRA element then unfortunately she will not be able to receive carers element of UC at the same time. This is because the same person can’t receive both elements and in this case the higher element is paid, which is LCWRA.

littleacorn

She only gets single person over 25 years contribution ESA plus about 1.45 UC payment

poppy123456

Ok so she hasn't yet had the decision on her work capability assessment? or she has and was found to have LCW? If so then her ESA will stop after 1 year.

If she hasn't yet had the decision then yes she can claim carers element but if found to have LCWRA later, then the carers element will stop and the LCWRA element will replace that.

littleacorn

She has been found LCW due to end soon, but she has been my full time carer since Octber 2023. I have long award which is full PIP for mobility and care. She claimed carers allowance around Christmas time but it took months for them to make a decision which was that she could not get carers allowance as they are overlapping benefits and needed to apply for carer's element of UC. She knew nothing about overlapping benefits as claiming benefits is new to her. As Carer's allowances took so long to let her know she applied for the wrong benefit she has missed out on months of money as she has been told it has to be a new claim.

Surely this can't be. Can she request for this payment to be back dated to when she applied for Carers Allowance as firstly she thought it was the right benefit to apply for and secondly it took a long time after many phone calls for them to let her knew it was the wrong benefit?

poppy123456

That means her New style ESA payments will end after one year. Once it ends there will no longer be any deductions from her UC for the ESA.

Who advised her to claim Carers allowance? Did she report being your carer at any point for UC? If she did then it can be backdated. If she didn't then it will be down to a decision maker to make the final decision on when to award it from.

Has she now reported a change of circumstances and told them she cares for you?

littleacorn

No one advised her to claim carers she just knew she could get extra money for caring so thought that was the right benefit so applied as she feels the benefit system is so complicated.

She has had issues claiming UC and has many notes written on her file with no replies from DWP even the advisor at the job centre said she has been let down by DWP with not responding or saying they will send information out 3 or 4 times and it still never arrives. She never thought she needed to write her carers role in her UC as she thought applying for Carers Allowance was all she needed to do. She has now informed UC but feels it was not her fault and if DWP departments worked together as one entity like they should then all this information should be shared. They do that with other benefits even if you rather they didn't. She was going to take this to her MP but as there is an election they will not deal with this kind of thing until the results are out.