Carers allowance overpayment

Loumc48

Hi all

Could I please get some advice. I’ve just seen a message in my UC journal stating that we have been overpaid by £494.92 from the 31/07/24-29/09/24 due to carers allowance.

My first CA payment was on the 11 th October and it was one month and one month backdated.

They are going to start reducing our payments. Is there anything I can do?

Many thanks

Jimm_Scope

Hi @Loumc48, this is something we have been hearing a lot. Carer's Allowance is quite strict as you need to ensure you earn under £151 per week after deductibles.

This is happening often enough and putting people into a bad situation that CarersUK has set up a specific advice page for it here: Support with overpayments - Carer's Allowance | Carers UK

You should be able to speak to the DWP and request that repayments are done in a way that does not cause you hardship. The part of the DWP to speak to is here: Repay and manage benefit money you owe: Part One - GOV.UK

DWP Debt Management contact centre

Telephone: 0800 916 0647

Monday to Friday, 8am to 7:30pm

If you have not earned over £151 a week after deductibles at any point and believe the decision is wrong you can request an appeal on the decision much like any other benefits decision. You will need to show evidence that you haven't earned over this much however. If your earnings are not regular you can request that they are averaged over period of time, such as 5 weeks.

How are you feeling by the way? I know this is probably a bit of a shock and worrying so want to check how you're doing.

Loumc48

https://forum.scope.org.uk/discussion/comment/942469#Comment_942469

Thank you @Jimm_Scope . I haven’t worked since May as had to give up my job to become my husbands carer. I have put a note in my journal stating that I am confused how this has happened so waiting to hear back.

I appreciate the response from you. It’s a never ending battle isn’t it! So stressful

Emilee

This is not related to earnings or the ongoing issues others are facing with Carer's Allowance overpayments.
The letter on your journal is from Universal Credit (UC) and informs you that you have been overpaid Universal Credit, not Carer's Allowance. The overpayment arises because Carer's Allowance is an overlapping benefit and is deducted in full from your UC payments.

Without knowing the exact claim and payment dates for both Carer's Allowance and Universal Credit, I cannot confirm this with certainty. However, based on a rough calculation, the amount seems likely to be correct.

Carer's Allowance is deducted at a rate of £354.90 per month from your total UC award.

Kimmy87

I think Jimm has confused what's happened with you, with another well known Carers Allowance issue.

https://forum.scope.org.uk/discussion/123740/esa-and-everything-else

As previously advised, CA is deducted in full from the UC award each month.

UC have applied the award of CA from 31st July- does that make sense with your dates?

If not I'd add a Journal note stating they've got the applicable start date wrong.

Emilee

To add to Kimmy's reply, it is the UC assessment period starting 31st July that they are saying you received Carer's Allowance (CA) from, not that your CA started on that date.

So they are saying your Carer's Allowance was backdated to a date between 31st July and 30th August.

Jimm_Scope

It is possible I've confused your situation with another issue that has arisen with Carer's Allowance.

Thank you @Kimmy87 for clarifying it! If there is overpayment still after you have figured everything out the numbers I shared should help with sorting out repayment with the DWP so there's less hardship to you.

Loumc48

https://forum.scope.org.uk/discussion/comment/942484#Comment_942484

Hi @Emilee @Kimmy87, sorry it wasn’t a CA overpayment but a UC one. I am so confused with all of this. The overpayment was from the period 31/7 - 29/9 . They have adjusted and lowered my payments for the awards on 31 July to 30 August and 31 aug to 29 September totalling the £494.92 overpayment . The first CA went in on the 11th oct but was two payments in one

Thanks again to you all!

Emilee

Sorry for the bad news but that does sound like it is correct then Loumc48

Loumc48

https://forum.scope.org.uk/discussion/comment/943004#Comment_943004

oh marvellous ! 😢. Thank you so much for confirming. I’ll call the debt management number then