Carers element backpay

We want to hear from you: please tell us about your experience of the online community.

sta3333

Hiya,

Can I just ask something as uc are driving me crazy!! They've made a decision and backpayed the disabled child element no problem, so far it's been 9 weeks and they haven't even sent carers element to a decision maker, they're saying because I now recieve carers allowance it created an overpayment and not an underpayment...as far as I'm aware you can claim both carers element and allowance as that's what I'm doing. I've spoken to debt management and they've not even received notice of the overpayment due to carers allowance but when they do I can repay in installments.

They've then said my statements have been amended from Feb (dla awarded from) so I've had the carers element, again I haven't and bank statements can prove this as can see the difference in statement amount and amount recieved again the difference is amount for carers element and disabled child element.

I've put in a complaint due to this and the fact I've been told 4 times it would be sent to decision maker and it hasn't been, they've said also when the issued backpayment it only showed for disabled child element and I said well yeah ofcourse it would it's the only element that's been asked for backpay, even though another person said I'd get both backdated they just wrote disabled child element on the letter 🙄🙄🙄

Am I right in thinking I am due backpayment of the carers element feb to July as my first statement woth both elements actually paid was August

Adrian_Scope

Good afternoon @sta3333

Carer's Allowance is considered an overlapping benefit, so it is deducted in full from your Universal Credit (UC). Since your Carer's Allowance is being backdated, this will result in an overpayment of Universal Credit, as the deductions were not applied during that period.

The carer element of Universal Credit is less than Carer's Allowance. In a lot of cases when backdating the carer element, the amount is used to offset part of the balance owed from the backdated Carer's Allowance. It sounds like this might be what they are doing in your situation, so your total overpayment is less. It could be worth you asking for clarity on the issue so you can see if this is what they are doing and check that they have amended your overpayment in line with what you should have been owed for the carer element.