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Carers Allowance & Univeral Credit

jadeXX

could someone help please my dad put in a claim for carers allowance for Caring for myself and they said we are due backpay on the 30th Jan he was meant to be paid his universal credit today but didn’t receive anything is this normal?

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poppy123456

Claiming carers allowance affects the amount of UC you can claim. This is because the carers allowance is deducted £1 for £1 from the UC credit claim. The amount they will deduct is £278 per month.

Carers allowance will them pay your dad separately. This is because you can't be paid the carers allowance twice. Carers allowance is £64.30 per week and is paid either weekly, 4 weekly or every 13 weeks, which ever he ticked when he started the claim.

As he's a carer then UC should then add a carers premium of £156 per month. This will make him £156 per month better off.

As for backdating the money, who told him this? has he received a letter telling him he's going to be backdated the money?

When did he first claim UC ?

When did he first start being your carer?

When did he start the carers allowance claim?

Sorry for the questions but i'll be able to advice you further once these are answered.

poppy123456

Sorry forget to add one thing. If it's a single claim for UC then this element is £317.82 per month... joint claim is £498.89 per month, for over 25's. You didn't say if it's a joint or single claim for UC. So, Carers allowance (£278) will be deducted from that. If he claims the housing element then this should be in with the payments he should receive.

He can also check his online journal to see what, if anything he was supposed to receive.

jadeXX

Okay it’s just really confusing as he’s been left with no money now and he rang them up last week and they said it will be backpayed on the 30th jan he has only been on UC for about 3 months he’s always cared for me so it’s being backdated to when I first had my assessment about August time I think and started the claim at the start of December

jadeXX

It’s a single claim for UC he was meant to be paid today his journal says payment due 0 days but he hasn’t had a statement on there since December 15th and hasn’t had no money

poppy123456

The back pay he'll receive will be from when your PIP claim started to the date he started his UC claim. It won't be back dated to the full amount because CA is deducted from his UC.

Without any housing element (for rent) added to his claim then his UC will be reduced to £39 per month, on top of that he'll have the carers element of £156. This gives a total of £195 per month.

The carers element of UC can't be back dated but for future payments he needs to make sure that they add this to his claim and change his claimant commitment because he's a carer.

When claiming UC you don't have to claim carers allowance to get the carers element added to the claim.

jadeXX

So he will end up with less than he would have without carers allowance ?

jadeXX

Sorry to be a pain and thank you for your help I just don’t get it ? because he had more than £195 on just UC

poppy123456

jadeXX said:

So he will end up with less than he would have without carers allowance ?

Yes for the amount of UC he'll receive because the carers allowance is deducted £1 for £1 from the UC. They then add a carers element of £156 per month.

He'll be paid the carers allowance separately so he's not worse off in total, he'll be £156 per month better off. It's just the way it's worked out. Which is why you don't have to claim carers allowance to be entitled to the carers element. The only bonus to this is the NI contributions that are paid from claiming carers allowance.

jadeXX

Thank you the problem is that they have changed his appointment 4 times this month down the jobcentre due to his advisor being ill so he hasn’t had the chance to tell them about it and was too late to ring up as he thought he would of been paid by 8pm

poppy123456

What hasn't he told them about? sorry i'm not understanding this part. Any payment not received isn't classed as not being paid until the following day. He'll need to ring UC tomorrow morning, they open at 8am. If they have deducted the deducted the carers allowance then it's possible that the UC payment has been reduced to zero for this month but only they can tell him for sure what's happened.

He should also ring carers allowance to ask when he's going to receive his first payment from them, if he hasn't already started to receive this.

jadeXX

They just said backpayment and first payment on the 30th jan it is zero so he will ring in the morning it’s just a long time for him to go without money thank you

poppy123456

It's not the 30th yet.

jadeXX

I know but he’s meant to of had his UC yesterday

poppy123456

https://www.universal-credit.service.gov.uk/contact

jadeXX

They put his pay on hold and he will have it by midnight they thought that he had been backpayed but they didn’t mention anything about carers element

jadeXX

He’s worse off now he was meant to have UC today and didn’t receive anything he rung them and they said all he will get is £60 a week carers allowance nothing else, so he is worse off now is that right?xx

poppy123456

They should be adding a carers element of £156 per month but the carers allowance will be deducted £1 for £1 from his UC payment but he shouldn't be worse off, he'll be £156 per month better off, as i previously advised. It doesn't seem like he's receiving this element each month and he needs to contact UC/DWP.

If he can't do this then he needs to contact an advice centre near him for face to face advice, they will be able to advise him and help him further. There's no other advice i can give other than what i already advised you.

jadeXX

Thank you he did ring them and all she said is that he will only get carers allowance £60 a week

poppy123456

That's not correct, as previously advised.

jadeXX

Thank you we have rang them and they are trying to sort it out I was also wondering if my dad can claim any PIP or ESA while caring for me as he had an injury in work a few years ago and shattered his heel and had an op were they fused it and it’s still really painful he also suffers with anxiety and depression