Do I need to look for work? Carer and ESA

pmccafferty

Just wondering if I need to look for work as I'm a carer.as my misses suffers from depression and anxiety. And claiming esa

JennysDad

Hi @pmccafferty and a warm welcome to the community. Glad you have found us.
You might find some information in our Employment issues, finances and ESA thread here https://community.scope.org.uk/categories/benefits-and-finances and, if you can bear with us, one of our benefits advisors will probably respond to your post shortly.
Warmest best wishes,
Richard

debbiedo49

Welcome 

Pippa_Alumni

Hi @pmccafferty, and welcome to the community!

It may be wise to have a look at the online benefits calculator to see what you may/may not be eligible for, and Turn2Us has a great resource on ESA permitted work which you may find helpful. Have a read, and please do come back to us with any questions.

[Deleted User]

Hi pmccafferty

Glad to hear from you.

I'm wondering whether your wife also has Personal Independence Payment (PIP) and also whether you are in a full service Universal Credit area. 
You can be paid income support in some geographical areas if your wife has PIP and you have carers allowance. In this case, you'd be asked to attend one appointment at the jobcentre with a work coach but that should be it. The income support claim would include personal allowance for your wife, and you'd get help with housing costs to some degree and full child tax credits for any children. 

If you're in a full service universal credit  (UC) area, you don't necessarily need to have carers allowance to be able to claim UC as a carer - again, if you claim as a carer, there should minimal attendance at the jobcentre to discuss your caring responsibilities. There is work coach discretion about whether or not to accept that you have caring responsibilities and how many hours per week if at all you are required to work or top look for work in order to get benefit. This is where medical evidence would be essential. If you have to claim as someone who is unemployed or too ill currently to work, there is more intervention around work capability.

To check which kind of area you are in, look at 

https://ucpostcode.entitledto.co.uk/ucdate

To do a benefit check to thrash out your likely entitlement to benefits, gather paperwork - council tax bill,  mortgage documents or rent details, amounts of any other household income, and go to 

https://www.scope.org.uk/support/disabled-people/benefits/check

Good luck (do get in touch again) and best wishes

Gill_Scope