Carers allowance

gym

Hi all.advice needed please. I was a carer for a gentleman recently. I was receiving carers allowance. When we realised that the carers allowance was affecting his disability benefit and attendance allowance I phoned the carers allowance department and asked for my carers allowance to be stopped. Now the gentleman has asked me for the money he had deducted from his benefits. I have refused to give him any money and now he has informed carers allowance that I claimed without his knowledge. I'm a little worried. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks

OverlyAnxious

This is a very difficult situation.

Ultimately I don't think he'll get anywhere, as he would have been sent a letter when you started claiming CA, so it'll be difficult for him to prove that he wasn't aware.

Does he need the money for a specific purpose (debt or rent arrears for example) or does he just feel that you shouldn't have received it, despite caring for him?

gym

He does not need the money he is well off.he thinks because he had deductions for a relatively short time (3 months).he thinks he should get the money back. I explained that he would not get any money back.so that's when he phoned carers allowance and said he was unaware that I had claimed to be his carer. As soon as he expressed he was not happy with the deductions I informed the carers allowance department. He thinks by throwing me under a bus(soo to speak).he will get the money back. All I did was care for him 😔

OverlyAnxious

I am sorry to hear that. It's strange what people do when money becomes involved. CA will hopefully have a note on their system showing when the letter was sent to him, and they should ask him to confirm whether he received it. Of course, things do get lost in the post, so that's not total proof.

I'm not sure there's any advice I can offer other than just being honest with CA if they contact you. Obviously it's not nice for him to lose money in this situation, but if you were providing 35+ hours of care to him then it's not fair for you to do that for free either.

gym

I looked after him 24/7 he could ring me day or night. I did everything for him. I really went the extra mile. Now he has fallen out with me and decided to try and get me in trouble just because he wants the money back. I will be honest with carers allowance 100% I'm currently taking sertraline and my anxiety is threw the roof I can't sleep at night.