carers allowance annomoly - check yours!

camber993

Hi All, hope you're all having a good day.
A noticed a strange thing regarding my Carers allowance today. As we know, Carers Allowance is £66.15 per week. But if claiming Universal credit, it's deducted £1 for £1. This then gets covered by Carer Element. So far so good. 
So I see that deducted from my UC is £286.65, which represents £66.15 x 4.333 weeks, or a calender month.
But then I saw that I receive seperately my Carers Allowance of £264.60 per month, which represents £66.15 x 4. ??? 
So it's a difference of £22.05 underpayment or overpayment whichever way you look at it, but I'm this figure worse off each month.
I've checked, and I am paid on the same day each month, so both are per calender month or every 4.333 weeks. Most bizarre, and I'm surprised I hadn't noticed it before.

I have queried it, but thought I would share in case others have had the same experience... So do check yours people!

poppy123456

Hi,

Your calculations are not correct, sorry. Carers allowance is paid weekly but UC is paid monthly. Sometimes there's 5 weeks in a month, which means you'll receive an extra CA payment. This is where everyone makes a mistake and thinks they are worse off when claiming UC but this isn't always true.

This is the correct way to work out the CA amount deduction against your UC payment.

£66.15 x 52 (weeks) = £3,439.80

Then you divide that amount by 12 because there's 12 months in a year and UC is paid monthly. This gives a total monthly amount of £286.65. Hope this helps.

camber993

Ah, sorry Poppy if I have it wrong.
I checked my bank statement and saw that I'm paid on the 3rd of each month, so assumed it was calender monthly. Had no idea that there might be weeks when I'm credited for 5 weeks. I've only been claiming for 3 months, so probably haven't noticed the long month one yet.
It's still a deficit of £22.05 each motn until a 5 weeks one comes along though! 

poppy123456

No problem. No, it's not a deficit because your calculations are wrong.

Your carers allowance isn't paid monthly, it's paid every 4 weeks so that's not calendar month. I receive carers allowance and it's paid 4 weekly. I received mine Monday 10th May and the payment before that was Monday 13th April. Please check your bank because it's definitely not paid monthly.

camber993

Thanks Poppy.
If you want to delete the thread so as to not confuse others thats OK?

wilko

Hello its the same with council housing benefit multiply by52 devide by 12 to get the monthly benefits right, even if the benefit is £115 per week its the same method, although the rent is £500 per month the actual benefit is £461 per month when worked out it equals £499 per month. 

poppy123456

You're welcome. I can't delete the thread but i'll tag admin for you so they can delete it.

@Adrian_Scope @Chloe_Scope could you please delete this thread as requested by @camber993 thank you.

Adrian_Scope

Hello @camber993, I'm glad @poppy123456 was able to clear this up for you. Lots of people get confused by this so as long as you're happy for me to, I won't delete your thread in case it helps explain it for others too, but if you do want it deleted, please just let me know.
Over the course of a year you are credited the same amount of Carers Allowance as is deducted from Universal Credit, it's just the difference between the weekly/4-weekly Carers Allowance and the monthly calculation of UC.