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Is there anything else I can claim to help in this situation

Carlad

I am looking for some advise. My son is disabled and just turned 20. I work 20 hours and I am his carer. I recieved disabled tax credit which has stopped. This is a massive drop in income and I am going to struggle paying my rent. He is now classed as a non dependent although completely dependent on me. He receives full pip award and we use the mobility component for a motability car. Is there anything else I can claim to help in this situation. I think I would actually be better off not doing the 20 hours work . Amy help or advice would be appreciated
Thanks carla

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Antonia_Alumni

Hi @Carlad welcome to the community. Thank you for sharing this with us. Please have look at our Calculate your benefits page and some of our members may be able to offer some advice soon.

atlas46

Hi @Carlad

A very warm welcome.

Suggest you seek face 2 face advice, from a Welfare Rights Advisor, say your local CAB.

They will be able to undertake a full benefits assessments, for you and your son.

An obvious one that springs to mind, is help with housing costs (rent & council tax).

Do you get Carers Allowance?

Is your son on any means tested benefits?

I would hold on changing your working hours, until you have sought advice.

Please keep us informed.

Hope this helps.

Sam_Alumni

Hi @Carlad
As Antonia says, you should check the Benefits calculator.
There is also information here about tax and benefits for carers that might help.

Carlad

I do receive carers allowance and done a benefits check online. Does carers allowance mess up housing benefit. I think I'm basically down just under 700 a month with the loss of disabled tax credit.
I will make an app with citizens advice and see if they can help
Thankyou for replying x

poppy123456

Hi,

As you were claiming tax credits for him then i'm assuming he's still a student? If so then this is complicated because full time students can't claim Universal credit. For a student to claim UC then they must satisfy 2 conditions, first they must claim PIP, which he does. The 2nd condition is that they must have limited capability for work, which he doesn't have because to be given this he needs to be assessed as having it and claiming PIP doesn't automatically qualify you for limited capability for work. See link.

http://www.cpag.org.uk/content/universal-credit-and-disabled-students

One way around this is for him to claim New style ESA for National insurance credits only which means he won't receive any money until he's assessed and a decision is made on his claim, this could take several months.

You really do need to get expert face to face advice for this because there's no easy solution. Good luck.

Carlad

Thank you poppy for your message. I will go to money advice but after reading the information via the link you send it seems there is no options for us. X

April

Carlad said:

I am looking for some advise. My son is disabled and just turned 20. I work 20 hours and I am his carer. I recieved disabled tax credit which has stopped. This is a massive drop in income and I am going to struggle paying my rent. He is now classed as a non dependent although completely dependent on me. He receives full pip award and we use the mobility component for a motability car. Is there anything else I can claim to help in this situation. I think I would actually be better off not doing the 20 hours work . Amy help or advice would be appreciated
Thanks carla

I have a daughter of a similar age who is a student. She gets ESA and DLA.

April

Carlad said:

Thank you poppy for your message. I will go to money advice but after reading the information via the link you send it seems there is no options for us. X

It sounds like he should claim ESA. That's what I did for my daughter. I was originally told that she couldn't claim, but don't be put off by that. I just insisted and in the end she got it.

poppy123456

April said:

It sounds like he should claim ESA. That's what I did for my daughter. I was originally told that she couldn't claim, but don't be put off by that. I just insisted and in the end she got it.

When did her claim start and does she receive money for ESA or is it just NI credits only and no money?

All areas are now a full UC area and a claim for Income related ESA is not possible anywhere in the country. Some students can claim UC but it depends on age and circumstances.

I posted a link above that explains it's possible to claim New Style ESA for NI credits only until an assessment is done and a decision is made on the claim. If the persons Son is given limited capability for work through ESA then they can claim UC.

BenefitsTrainingCo

Hi Carlad

I agree with a lot of what's been said here - but, bear in mind that Carer's Allowance (CA) has an earnings limit of £120 per week. This means that if your net earnings (after tax/NI) are more than £120 per week then you are not eligible for Carer's Allowance.

Where someone is eligible for Carer's Allowance there is an effect on Housing Benefit. Housing Benefit may go down but it can only ever go down by less than the extra amount that is received in Carer's Allowance. And so we would always advise someone to claim CA in this situation because they would be better off.

I understand how you must feel though because you will have lost a lot of income when your son turned 20. This is because you cannot continue to get Child Benefit or Child Tax Credit beyond the 20th birthday, even if the child remains in education. As has been suggested the adult child may be able to claim for themselves but in your son's case it may be made more difficult due to his student status and it may be necessary for him to get some help with his claims.

You might like to check your Housing Benefit. It may be that an amount has been deducted from your HB in respect of your son but Housing Benefit offices sometimes get this wrong. You might find this factsheet on non-dependent deductions by Shelter helpful when checking. For example, if your son is a full time student there should be no deduction.

If your HB is correct but is not at the maximum amount then you could ask for a Discretionary Housing Payment. Whether you get one of these will not only depend on your circumstances but will also depend on how much money your council has for these, as amounts vary a great deal between councils. Nonetheless it may be worth asking by contacting your council's HB service. I think you are more likely to get a DHP if your son is not a full time student and a non dependent deduction has been made.

Good luck

April

poppy123456 said:

April said:

It sounds like he should claim ESA. That's what I did for my daughter. I was originally told that she couldn't claim, but don't be put off by that. I just insisted and in the end she got it.

When did her claim start and does she receive money for ESA or is it just NI credits only and no money?

All areas are now a full UC area and a claim for Income related ESA is not possible anywhere in the country. Some students can claim UC but it depends on age and circumstances.

I posted a link above that explains it's possible to claim New Style ESA for NI credits only until an assessment is done and a decision is made on the claim. If the persons Son is given limited capability for work through ESA then they can claim UC.

I'm confused because my daughter and son definitely get income related ESA.. Only one is still a student now, but they both claimed when they were students. I don't know anything about Universal Credit.. I read that new style ESA is just the same thing as the old type of ESA but the application process is a little different eg. you can apply by phone.

April

April said:

poppy123456 said:

April said:

It sounds like he should claim ESA. That's what I did for my daughter. I was originally told that she couldn't claim, but don't be put off by that. I just insisted and in the end she got it

I posted a link above that explains it's possible to claim New Style ESA for NI credits only until an assessment is done and a decision is made on the claim. If the persons Son is given limited capability for work through ESA then they can claim UC.

Ah, I've just read the link that you posted. Interesting. So it seems there is a way round claiming money for disabled students. That's worth knowing because I have a third child who is disabled and doesn't yet receive benefits apart from PIP. My other daughter and son were lucky to claim before Universal Credit was introduced in my area.

Carlad

Hi April, i think I've actually gave up with it all.

poppy123456

April said:

I'm confused because my daughter and son definitely get income related ESA.. Only one is still a student now, but they both claimed when they were students. I don't know anything about Universal Credit.. I read that new style ESA is just the same thing as the old type of ESA but the application process is a little different eg. you can apply by phone.

They both would have claimed Income related before the UC changes took place in your area and it students were able to claim this if they were claiming PIP or DLA. As all areas are now a full UC area and have been since middle of December it's no longer possible for anyone to start a new claim for the old legacy benefits such as Income Related ESA.

New style ESA and Contributions based ESA (old style) are similar yes but with the New style ESA it's not possible to claim any income related top up (premiums) Different claims process too.

When your child benefit stops for your third child if they're still in full time non advanced education you will need to get face to face advice from either welfare rights or a law centre near you because the only way for them to claim any benefits in their own right will be as the link above suggests. Any students loans they receive in the future will be counted as income for all means tested benefits.

poppy123456

Carlad said:

Hi April, i think I've actually gave up with it all.

It's an extremely complicated process and if your son is still a full time student in non advanced education then the only way for him to claim any benefits in his own right will be to claim New style ESA for NI credits only (no money) until he's assessed for limited capability for work. You should get face to face advice from either welfare rights or a law centre near you.