Will we be worse off if we claim carers allowance?

Spw

My wife has been ill for a long time, I was looking to get back to work asap but her illness is permanent. If I start claiming carers allowance will we be worse off as we are a family unit?

JennysDad

Hello @Spw and a warm welcome to the community. Very sorry to hear about your good lady.
You need one of our benefits advisors to chat with you on this and they will, I am sure, get back to you as soon as possible. In the meanwhile please have a look at this resource on carer's allowance. You may well find some answers there and, if not, it may help you put together the best questions
Very warmest best wishes,
Richard
@JennysDad

fishingmum

hey @Spw, I don't know your financial situation, however when I got carers allowance for my son I found we were exactly the same, as it is classed as an income our tax credits were adjusted for that. We dont have housing or council tax benefit so there was no change on that, my friend however, when claiming carers allowance had her money topped up with income support, although it was classed as an income for tax credits she found she got slightly more money.

If you go to the turn2us website they have a calculator to work out benefits on and should give you an idea of what you might be looking at. here is a link for you. https://www.turn2us.org.uk/

steve51

Hi @Spw

Welcome & Good Day my Friend.

We have got a “Benefit Calculator” here on our site.

Please please let me know if I can help you with this???

We have also got some “Benefit Advisors” on here & I be more than happy in passing your post onto them for you if that would be better?????

Sam_Alumni

Hi @Spw
As others suggest, it would be good for you to try the benefits calculator to be able to check on your personal finances.

poppy123456

Spw said:

My wife has been ill for a long time, I was looking to get back to work asap but her illness is permanent. If I start claiming carers allowance will we be worse off as we are a family unit?

To be able to claim Carers Allowance your wife must first have an award of either Daily living PIP or mid/high rate care DLA.

If she has either of those and you care for her for 35 hours or more per week and you earn less than £120 per week, after deductions then yes you can claim it.
See Carers Allowance criteria here.
https://www.gov.uk/carers-allowance/eligibility