Backdated carers allowance.

Tomp77

We're looking for some help. 

My son receives dla awarded from 29/01/2019. UC awarded us the disabled element of £126 from 27/03/2019.

We've now since been awarded carers allowance from the same date and have received the backdate from them. We've declared on the UC website we're now in receipt of Carers allowance and will now receive £160 carers element to which they take that and the Disabled element off you to put to your Carers allowance 

How will it work in terms of us receiving backdate carers allowance but on the UC payments nothing.

Do they now Backdate the £160 carers element to the same date and the £126 disabled element on our UC payments and just take it off as received already? And what's the likeliness that they take extra money from us this month to say we owe them?

(p.s I'm expecting 2 lots of £126 to be taken as we received that in our bank as our carers was still awaiting a decision so they'll want that back to put to our carers that we've received)

Confusing but hopefully someone gets it lol. Thank you. 

poppy123456

Tomp77 said:

We're looking for some help. 

My son receives dla awarded from 29/01/2019. UC awarded us the disabled element of £126 from 27/03/2019.

We've now since been awarded carers allowance from the same date and have received the backdate from them. We've declared on the UC website we're now in receipt of Carers allowance and will now receive £160 carers element to which they take that and the Disabled element off you to put to your Carers allowance 

Hi,

This is not correct. You're receiving £66.15 per week from carers allowance. DWP will deduct £286 per month from your UC payment for the carers allowance because it's deducted £1 for £1 because you can't receive the payment twice.

If you've received backdated money for the carers allowance already then i'm afraid you'll have an overpayment for UC and DWP will be in contact with you regarding this.  This is because you've already received the payment in your past UC payments.

The carers element will then be added to your UC payments (£160 per month) as well as the lower disabled child element (£126 per month) these won't be deducted from your payments. For the carers element to be added then you need to put a note on your UC journal for it to be added. It should be backdated to the start of your carers allowance award.

When claiming UC there's no need to claim carers allowance to be eligible to claim the carers element. The only advantage to doing this is you'll be paid class 1 NI credits.

Tomp77

Hi thanks for getting back to me. We've received 2 lots of £126 so I presume they'll ask us to pay that back. Which is fine as we've now technically received that twice. They've only backdated our Disabled child element 2 months not since the award of Dla and Carers allowance.

I have made them aware we've received carers allowance backdated to January. 

poppy123456

No, you won't have to pay back the £126, you're confused here. Please have another read of my comment above. The carers allowance will be deducted £1 for £1 from the UC payments.

Tomp77

OK so as I've been awarded carers allowance from January (received backdate last week) will I owe the UC all that I've received from Carers? Even though I've not been paid it twice. I was receiving just standard UC until May when the £126 started. 

Would the carers element be backdated on my UC or will that start from now? 

Thanks for your help in understanding this. 

poppy123456

You're welcome.

Yes, you will owe UC all the carers allowance you've received. This is because you've already received it because it's deducted £1 for £1 from the UC payment. When claiming carers allowance with UC they deducted £286 per month from your UC. Carers allowance then pay you £66.15 per week. Lots of people fail to understand this part.

UC need to add to the carers element of £160 per week, which should be backdated.

The disabled child element will continue to be paid in with your UC payment.

Hart86

Just to add, the disabled child element and the carers element should both be backdated to the award date of carers and DLA. They may use this backdated money to offset what you owe them for the carers allowance (it has been known and just depends how they process it). Going forward, you’ll have carers allowance deducted from your UC but you’ll continue to get the £160 a month carers element and £126 disabled child element and carers allowance will continue to be paid to you weekly. 
If they don’t use the backdated carers element and disabled child element to offset some of what you owe, please don’t worry too much about it!! There are limits as to how much they can recover each month and they won’t ask for it back in one go. 

Adrian_Scope

Hi @Tomp77 and welcome to the community. I can see you've had your question answered, but if you need any more support, please just let us know.