Hi, my name is nickfakdo!

nickfakdo

On Thursday 5th March 2020 I have applied for Carers allowance as my wife suffers with MS. Nothing unusual about this other than Claire was diagnosed in 2005 and she had to finish work. I still worked full time and cared for her.
in 2008 I had a stroke and was medically retired from the NHS in 2009 with Amy pension.
at some point I asked at my local job centre about Carers allowance to help with looking after Claire and was told I would not be entitled as my income was such that I would not qualify. This was around 2011/2012. I accepted this and did nothing more about this until last Thursday I read by chance that a private pension is not and will not affect a claim for Carers allowance, hence I made my claim.
i have asked for it to be backdated to 2012.
we have always struggled financially over the years and to find out by chance that I was given the wrong advice has been most upsetting.
will my claim be recognised or is it just wishful thinking.
i have not worked in any way since 2009 and my wife receives the higher rates of pip including mobility.
i would just like some half decent advice.
 Thank you 
keith

poppy123456

HI and welcome,

Unfortunately, the most it will be backdated is 3 months, they won't backdate it that far i'm afraid. Asking for advice like this at your local Job centre is really not the best place to go to for advice.

May i ask what other benefits you're both claiming?

nickfakdo

Hi  thank you for your response, I receive the lower care component of pip as a result of my stroke and heart attack.
my wife in addition to her pip receives incapacity once every 4 weeks
keith

poppy123456

You're welcome.

Lower rate PIP? there's no lower rate for PIP, it's standard and Enhanced.

Incapacity benefit? Are you sure your wife receives this because it no longer exists and hasn't existed for many years. ESA replaced this and it's a weekly benefit paid every fortnight.

nickfakdo

Excuse my lack of understanding and maybe this is why we haven’t pursued CA.
you are correct my wife receives ESA and I receive the standard pip allowance monthly.
keith

poppy123456

It's no problem, the benefit system isn't easy to understand. I can only assume that your wife's ESA is Contributions based because of your Army pension. I'm sorry you were so poorly advised about the carers allowance all those years ago. I'm glad you found out that you could claim it and although you've missed out on several years of money, sadly there's nothing you can do about that now. At least you'll now be claiming it going forward and hopefully it won't be too long before payments start.

nickfakdo

thank you very much for your help and I will let you know if and when anything happens.
keith

Adrian_Scope

Best of luck with the claim for Carer's Allowance @nickfakdo and I'm sorry you were badly advised. 
Many years ago I had a similar issue and was incorrectly advised by the Job Centre that I couldn't claim CA as it would be directly taken out of the DLA of the person I cared for. It's awful because so many people take their advice at face-value and can end up missing out on money they are entitled to.

nickfakdo

Thank you for your reply
keith