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Esa Pip Uc & careers allowance

ness_

Hello everyone,

I am very new here, so I am really sorry if I am writing this in the wrong section or anything else.

So, just to introduce you with my story … :) I was diagnosed with Ms over 4 years ago, over a year ago I had to quit my job as the condition got worse. Because of my partners income (he had business)I was only able to claim Esa at the time, pip was refused to me.
But as my condition got worse my Esa was changed to support group, they also decided to grant me with pip a few months ago. Recently my partner lost his business and we had no choice just to start claiming uc. He is not really lucky with jobs at the moment… He also helps me with my daily tasks, which affects his job search too.. it’s in general a bit of a stressful time for us because of numerous things that are happening recently…

Sorry for long introduction… :)

So my question is, if I am receiving esa (support group), pip (daily living component if I am right how it’s called) and we both receive uc + housing benefit. If he would start claiming carers allowance do my esa & pip or any other benefits we get would be reduced? I am also receiving extra component with our uc claim each month because of my disability…Also, how does it work? We get it paid with our uc or he would get it paid to his account? Or would I need to claim it and I would receive it?

Thank you and hope I wrote ever clear enough for you to understand…

Ness

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poppy123456

As you're claiming UC then you would only be claiming housing benefit if you're either living in supported or temporary housing. If not then rent will be included with UC known as housing element. Housing benefit is a completely different benefit.

Unless you live in Scotland there's no financial gain to claiming carers allowance at the same time as UC because it's just deducted in full from any UC entitlement. The only difference with CA is that he would receive class 1 NI credits but with UC it's only class 3.

If he does claim CA then it will not affect your PIP or New style ESA.

He can claim carers element of UC which will increase your maximum UC entitlement by £198.31/month. He doesn't need to claim carers allowance to be entitled to Carers element. To claim it he will need to log into his journal and report a change of circumstances. From there he needs to click "caring for someone" and then report caring for you for at least 35 hours per week.

The LCWRA element for your UC will be included with your monthly payment. It's £416.19/month.

ness_

https://forum.scope.org.uk/discussion/comment/887173#Comment_887173

Hello Poppy,

Thank you for your answer.
We do rent privately, so i it is housing element. Sorry, it’s all pretty new to us, I do not understand a lot of these things.

So as I understand there is no point of him to sign up as my carer as it would be deducted anyway? By any chance you know about Esa’s disability premiums? Am I entitled of that if I am receiving standard pip rate?

Also, do you know by any chance if I should contact Uc as my Esa is being deducted of our uc as £598.87 a month, but I’ve never received this amount. I do reveive £276.40 every two weeks which is £552.80 a month.

Thank you for your help

poppy123456

He can claim carers element of UC which will increase your maximum UC entitlement. To do this please refer back to my previous comment.

You will not be entitled to any of the disability premiums because they are not payable when claiming New style ESA or UC. They are only payable when claiming either Income Related ESA or the old contributions based. UC will be topping up your income.

The deductions for ESA are correct. This confuses many people because they forget that ESA is a weekly benefit and UC is monthly. There’s 4.3 weeks in a month and not 4 weeks.

To work out the monthly amount you times the weekly amount by 52 and then divide by 12… £13.20 x 52 divided by 12 = £598.87 to the nearest £1. For your ESA there will be 1 month each year when you will receive 3 payments instead of 2 and during that month your UC will include the same amount of deductions as normal.

ness_

Thank you for your help, appreciate your time 🤗

ness_

https://forum.scope.org.uk/discussion/comment/887263#Comment_887263

Sorry to bother you again, carers element will be paid with our uc? Can it be back dated?

poppy123456

You’re welcome. Yes, with your UC because it increases your maximum UC entitlement by £198.31/month. You can ask for it to be backdated to the start of the PIP award, whether it will is another matter. Usually if you don’t report being a carer they can refuse to pay it from an earlier assessment period. It will be down to a decision maker to make the final decision.

ness_

Thank you ♥️

ness_

I am not sure if you’re still here, we just got on his uc to do “carers element”. Before we do it I just want to double check that it will not affect any of the help I am receiving at the moment? Pip + esa + lwcra ? I am very worried to mess things up as we are hardly affording to pay all the bills at the moment, so I just want to make sure we are doing the right thing. That would only increase our entitlement with uc and we will not be loosing any other help. Is it correct? I am so sorry for being a pain….

poppy123456

Carers element is part of UC. It has nothing to do with your PIP or ESA and those will not be affected. It has nothing to do with your LCWRA element, which is also part of UC.

As I advised, it will increase your UC maximum entitlement by £198.31/month, which is a very good thing.

ness_

Thank you , Poppy

Jimm_Alumni

Hey @ness_, welcome to the community. I just wanted to say that this was the perfect section for your question! I'm glad Poppy was able to help you through your question. Please do let us know how you and your partner get on, best of luck to them with the job searching

ness_

https://forum.scope.org.uk/discussion/comment/889051#Comment_889051

Thank you very much. He has some ideas about the job so we are trying to put some money together now as he would need to buy some tools for the job he is thinking to do. He worked for years in the parcel delivery services and I used to work in retail, but looks like we need to change a lot of things at the moment to suit the “new life”…

And yes, Poppy was very helpful. Thank you for finding time to write to us too.

ness_

Hello Poppy,

We haven’t done it just yet because we are trying to work out and put him in a job and see how many hours he would work and how many hours he would be helping me…

Can he work as well as claim carers element? As he wants to work and we do need extra money as our bills are very high (we live in Essex where rent is very expensive). It would probably not be a full time job as as much as I do not want to admit it I do need much more help than before even with little daily things which were pretty easy to manage sometimes feel like a mission now to me… He takes our dog out, does the shopping, even learned how to cook simple meals on my bad days because he never done it before, so he can do it for us, helping in the house, sorts the garden ect ect which I was doing it all before… and much more

I am sorry for keep asking you questions and not sure if you will see it :)

poppy123456

Carers element of UC has no maximum earnings limit like carers allowance does. Therefore yes, he will be able to work as well as claim carers element, many people do.

ness_

https://forum.scope.org.uk/discussion/comment/890006#Comment_890006

Can we still leave his self employment “open” on uc so he can write his earnings when there is any? Hes got a meeting with the job centre next week thinking it they will cancel this or what will they do? They are not aware he lost his job just yet as we expecting him to start working again soon.

poppy123456

If he's no longer working then he needs to report the changes. He will then be treated as a job seeker, until he claims Carers element.

Once he claims carers element then he will have no work commitments so will not need to attend appointments. Until he claims it then yes he will need to attend that appointment.

ness_

Can we do both him loosing his job and carers allowance at the same time? Don’t want to look dodgy to the uc, I just don’t know how long it will take till he starts his new job it might be few weeks it might be a month or so? The only reason we didn’t let them know is we wanted to keep his self employment showed.

ness_

Because it’s only short term and we can’t be asked to go through all the process again, we just thought its easier not to say anything.

ness_

as he will be working again soon we expect

poppy123456

https://forum.scope.org.uk/discussion/comment/890101#Comment_890101

It's not carers allowance, it's carers element, they are different benefits. Carers allowance isn't part of UC as I advised earlier in the thread.

Earnings make no difference to carers element anyway. You are really overthinking this. My advice is for him to report the changes and tell them that he's caring for you. Then your UC will include carers element. I see very little point in delaying the process any further.