DWP PIP tribunal response pack & Carers Allowance.

Northerner

I’ve just received my response pack from DWP and they are asking the tribunal to consider my claim for carers allowance along with their case. 

Has as anyone any experience of this as I wasn’t expecting and I’m now worried that if I loose my PIP case I may loose my carers allowance as well?

Pippa_Scope

Hi @Northerner, I think a benefits advisor would be the best person to advise you on this, so I've moved your post to the relevant category. Hopefully somebody will be in touch soon!

CockneyRebel

Hi Northerner

Are you  caring for  someone or is someone caring for you ?

CR

Northerner

Hi yes I care for one of my children. 

CockneyRebel

Unless the reason for your PIP claim means that you cannot give the required 35 hours pw of care the two should not be connected.

CR

Northerner

Hi yes I agree but would have thought that if the DWP had any concerns that they would have contacted myself directly. 

BenefitsTrainingCo

Hi @Northerner

This is highly irregular! Whilst I would not necessarily have expected them to contact you directly to discuss, if the DWP think that your entitlement to Carer's is incorrect they should end the claim themselves - a Tribunal cannot do this anyway and it would not be considered as part of a PIP appeal hearing.

Are you sure that the submission writer at the DWP hasn't gone into DLA mode and accidentally started referring to the 'Daily Living' component as 'Care' component?

What exactly do they say?...

Mary

BenefitsTrainingCo

Are they just trying to raise with the Tribunal that your CA indicates you may not be entitled to PIP -  i.e. if you provide 35 hours of care per week to another person then you must be able to care for yourself?.. (rather than querying entitlement to CA)

Northerner

Hi thank you, the response pack suggests that the court look at the claim for CA so your comment directly above makes complete sense. I was not aware that the court could not end the entitlement which was why I was worried. It was a welfare rights advisor whom origonaly advised me to claim CA even with my physical limitations. 

BenefitsTrainingCo

There's nothing at all to prevent a disabled person from claiming CA whatsoever, the 35 hours care can come in the form of supervision, guidance etc (depending on the needs of the person being cared for).

Just be prepared to answer questions on this in the Tribunal. May well be that your needs are totally different from those of the child you care for!

Best of luck and kind regards,

Mary

SusiQ

Hi Northener,
I had exactly the same scenario. I claimed full CA for my Autistic Son prior to him obtaining a place at University last September, and now claim Boarder Payments for his Care during the Uni Holidays. I was challenging my own original PIP Award - Low Care and NIL Mobility - and took it through MR where it was rejected, an ATOS Face to Face Assessment where it was rejected, and finally to a first tier Tribunal.
In it's defense statement, DWP submitted  a report asking that the Court look at why I was in receipt of CA when I was claiming to have high care needs myself.
Like you, I was absolutely devastated by this, as it cut to the core....DWP appeared to be questioning my abilities as a Parent and my ability to care for my Son. The care that I had given over 20 years was at the detriment to my own health and at great cost, but I did it willingly - he is my Son
As is stated above DWP are not querying your right to CA - they are trying to prove that you are not entitled to PIP. They obviously haven't got anything else to defend their case with!!!
I won a High Care Award at Tribunal, and, although the Panel addressed the issue of how my Son's care needs impact upon my own, they did not take it into consideration.
Good luck!

BenefitsTrainingCo

Hi Northerner, 

Are your son's caring needs more of a physical nature or mental? If it is mental and your caring is more supervisory then that is easily explained and doesn't contradict your own reasons for claiming PIP. The DWP won't get anywhere querying that. There's no doubt though, that if your son's needs are physical and requires you to physically exert yourself (I don't know how old your son is) then I guess the DWP and the tribunal are within their rights to be inquisitive about it. As Mary says, the law doesn't say that a person claiming CA can't get PIP, but the tribunal may ask questions about the nature of the care you provide and may use that evidence to decide whether your care requirements fit you into the PIP criteria. Good luck!

Lee

snuggly

Yes I got this to.the dwp sent me a copy of the letter they sent to my tribunal asking them to look at my carers allowance I got for looking after my partner because if I was as bad as I said I was how could I care for my partner.
i was fuming I felt like it was like some form of blackmail you see I had got some pip but they had took away my lower rate mobility and put me on standard care.
so I felt like the dwp was saying if I go to tribunal I might just not loose what I had got from my pip but my carers to .
but my partner at the time was bi polar I wasn’t doing heavy physical lifting as you probably would a physical disabled person caring for someone with bi polar is a lot different than caring for someone with a physical disability.
i had a tip from a esa and pip group I belong to on Facebook of at tribunal they ask if you would like to reconsider going ahead then don’t go ahead as you could loose what ever you got .
this happened at my tribunal so I didn’t go ahead then they told me it was the right decision as I would had lost what I had as they had no medical records for me .