Where do I start?

tisms6

Advice Please!!

I am disabled for multiple disabilities and also carer for my 4 autistic children. I am in receipt of enhanced pip and universal credit. My husband is self employed. Unfortunately, at times I am so debilitated that my husband has to stay home to care for both myself and our children . Universal credit keep telling us that he is not earning enough money, but it can't be helped, if he has to cancel work in order to look after us. Would this stop if he became my registered carer? At present, I have no registered carer, and he is not registered as a carer . The whole benefit system is so confusing, and I always feel ashamed that we are in this position due to no fault of our own. Any advice is much appreciat🙏

poppy123456

If your UC includes the daily living part then your husband can claim carers element of UC for looking after you. There's no earnings limit to claiming this. It will also mean that he will have no work commiments so will not be expected to look for work or increase his earnings.

To claim it he needs to report a change of circumstances on his journal and then click "caring for someone" and report caring for you for at least 35 hours per week. (assuming no one else is claiming this or carers allowance for looking after you)

tisms6

Poppy. Thank you so much. Why has uc never told us this before? He's always had to care of me and the children due to our disability, and have always struggled as he is self employed, if he doesn't work, he doesn't get paid! We only started claiming benefits in January, as I was medically retired from working in nhs for over years 20 as I mentally and physically became unable to carry on. But ive always felt a sense of shame and embarrassment . I'm going to do as you advised, thank you so much poppy! X this is one less thing to worry about x

poppy123456

You're welcome. It's because they are not benefits advisors but you would still think they would have mentioned carers element, if they know you're claiming PIP. You can also ask for the carers element to be paid from either the start of your claim or from when your PIP started, if it started after you claimed UC.

Are you also claiming New style ESA? Although there's no financial gain to claiming it when claiming UC because it's deducted in full but it's not means tested like UC and maybe useful in the future. You will also receive class 1 NI credits from this but for UC it's class 3.

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/new-style-employment-and-support-allowance

tisms6

Thank you! No, I don't claim esa, as i no longer work, my husband is self-employed and I don't actually know what it is!