Carers allowance under UC.

Oddfellow

I cant get my head around the fact that Carers allowance is deducted from UC but I will now get the Carers element! So in practice instead of getting £327.60 per month (because it's deducted) I will now get £198.31 instead.So Iam getting less as a carer…..is this correct thinking?

So in other words Mr and Mrs Smith who's not claiming carers allowance will get full UC but I have my carers deducted from it and replaced with £198.31.Hope to have some light shed on this as it doesn't sound right.

Thanks.

poppy123456

Yes, it's deducted in full from any UC entitlement because it's treated as "other Income." You will then be paid the carers allowance as a separate payment. There's no financial gain to claiming CA at the same time as UC.

You will not be any worse off than Mr and Mrs Smith who don't claim carers allowance and just claim carers element with UC.

You do not need to claim carers allowance to be entitled to carers element.

I note that from a previous thread you migrated from ESA. If that was Income Related ESA the same rules applied to that and the Carers allowance was deducted in full. They then added the carers premium.

Oddfellow

I understand that I'm no worse off than anyone not claiming carers.What I'm getting at is instead of receiving carers allowance ( I do but it's deducted) so on paper I don't get it as such.Then replaced by carers element which is less than the carers allowance I used to receive.

poppy123456

Yes I know but what I’m trying to say is that it’s no different to what it was when you were claiming ESA.

Your ESA included carers premium, the same as UC includes carers element. There’s absolutely no difference at all.

You still receive the carers allowance as a separate payment the same as you always did prior to claiming UC.