still waiting

SkyMary7

i applied for carers allowance on 3rd July to care for my dad. I have rang a few times and they have not processed the claim yet. However my dad has received numerous letters one from the pension credit saying that they are stopping his pension premium. one from the council saying that he has been over paid housing benefit by 18.00 and now has to pay 5.73 a week towards his rent of £75.00 amd and £10 a month towards his council tax. He received a letter today saying that he has been over paid tax credits by £400. Yet I have not received a thing. Any advice please thanks x

poppy123456

Hi,

Oh dear, what you should have done is contact your local CAB for advice before you put a claim in for carers allowance for him.

It sounds like he was claiming Severe Disability premium on top of his pension credit, this is £64.30 per week he's lost and his other means tested benefits will be affected too. A person isn't entitled to Severe disability premium if someone is claiming carers allowance for looking after them, as you've started a claim then he's now not entitled to SDP. The reason for the over payments will be because you put a claim in for Carers allowance and now he's not entitled to full housing benefit and council tax reduction. I have no idea about the tax credits, are you sure he's claiming this? What's his reason for the tax credits claim?

My advice, ring Carers Allowance to see if you can cancel the claim in the morning. I have no idea if this is possible but i'm sure it will be fine. If you don't then your dad is going to be considerably worse off.

A claim for Carers Allowance takes 8-12 weeks which is why you haven't heard anything from them.

SkyMary7

we rang the pension credit up and they said he would loose the severe disabled premium as this goes to pay the carers allowance. the housing benefit is 5.73 a week which he wasn't to bothered about. But he said he was told it will change again once the carers allowance is paid out. But not sure why it would as why change it now before the claim has been processed and then again once it has. 

poppy123456

Without the tax credits and i'm not sure why or how he's claiming this but he will be approx £80 per week worse off if you continue your claim for Carers Allowance, based on your figures above. That's an awful lot of money to lose out on! If it was me and my dad then i'd certainly be canceling the carers allowance claim.

poppy123456

I'd put all of his details into this benefits calculator and it will tell you exactly how much worse of per week he'll be. They are very accurate if all the details are entered correctly. https://benefits-calculator.turn2us.org.uk/AboutYou

SkyMary7

hi i was going to give the carers allowance to my dad. It was mostly to allow me to give work up to care for him. As at the moment I work and care for him and my daughter. 

poppy123456

Giving up work to care for him and them claim the Carers Allowance to give to him doesn't really make sense because by doing this you've made him considerably worse off. Please speak to your local CAB who can do a full benefits check on him.

SkyMary7

okay thanks ive just done the benefits calculator and it says that he should get full housing benefit. so im not sure why he is being told to pay 5.73 towards rent of 70.00 we have an appointment for Wednesday at citizens advice. thanks for your help 

poppy123456

No problem. I'm glad you've already made the appointment.