giving up work to care for dad

SkyMary7

hi i want to give work up to care for my dad who is on PIP and lives by himself. we have a 7 year old girl and my partner is down as carer for her. Problem is my dad says hell loose his benefits if i claimed carers allowance for him. He is 67 and on pension credit and PIP higher rate. Can anyone advise if this is correct and what he would loose. thanks S x

wilko

Hi SkyMary7, I don't think it will affect dads benefits at all as the carer can be anybody not a family member who would be getting the carers allowance and not your dad. I am sure somebody will correct me if I am wrong but do check with CAB or other parts of scope site.

SkyMary7

hi i wasn't sure if it would affect his housing benefit? 

poppy123456

Hi,

First thing you need to do is check what PIP he claims, if he claims the Daily living part then it's highly possible that he's claiming Severe Disability Premium (SDP) This is paid to someone living alone, claims either daily living PIP, DLA mid/high rate care or Attendance Allowance and no one claims Carers Allowance for looking after him. It's £64.30 per week. If you claim Carers for him then he will lose this premium. No other benefits of his will be affected.

SkyMary7

hi he said he claims the middle care component and low rate mobility. x

poppy123456

There's no middle care for PIP, it's standard or Enhanced. Middle care is for DLA. Either way he needs to check that he's not claiming the Severe Disability Premium (SDP) because if he does and you claim Carers Allowance for looking after him then he'll lose that SDP. That's a lot of money for him to lose.

SkyMary7

okay thanks 

SkyMary7

is it more than the Carers allowance   ? 

mikehughescq

poppy123456 said:

Hi,

First thing you need to do is check what PIP he claims, if he claims the Daily living part then it's highly possible that he's claiming Severe Disability Premium (SDP) This is paid to someone living alone, claims either daily living PIP, DLA mid/high rate care or Attendance Allowance and no one claims Carers Allowance for looking after him. It's £64.30 per week. If you claim Carers for him then he will lose this premium. No other benefits of his will be affected.

I think we need to be much clearer here. This is a case which needs face to face advice from two angles. One is on the impact of giving up work on your finances; pension rights; housing costs etc. The other is whether your Dad gets SDP. If he doesn’t then he may be being underpaid and that needs addressing. If he does then I’d need to clarify Poppy’s statement that loss of SDP would not impact other benefits. Unfortunately it most definitely could. 

If his PC is more than SDP then the loss is only SDP. If his PC is less than SDP then loss of SDP could result in loss of PC and significant changes to Housing Benefit and Council Tax Reduction. 

SkyMary7

my plan is to just give him the carers allowance, if he is affected. But we are just trying to find out if he will be. thanks 

mikehughescq

And my point is that that may not be anywhere near e ought if he loses PC and sees reductions in his HB and CTR. Face to face advice.

SkyMary7

okay thanks for your advice x