Backlog Carer Allowance Decisions FYI

KellyCornwall

My daughter got awarded PIP in January 2020 and this was backdated to Oct 2019. I put in a claim for the carer allowance and was told it would take around 2 weeks.
For any one else who is waiting for a decision I telephoned them today and they told me they have a back log and I have been waiting to hear for 8 weeks. They told me that they are only now looking at claims put in in November and I put mine in in January and so it will be at least another few weeks or a month before I even hear anything.

How can this go on, there must be hundreds if not thousands of people who rely on their benefits. I really feel for everyone struggling and waiting for decisions. 

poppy123456

Hi,

There’s thousands of people that claim benefits every day and this causes backlogs. Unfortunately there’s really nothing we can do about backlogs. Thankfully, it will be backdated to the start of the PIP award. However, if you claim another certain benefit then you may not receive the full amount of carers allowance backdated. 

wilko

Hello and welcome, yes it a pain the waiting but as you never had this income then the wait isn’t to bad, you may find that if your claiming other benefits, housing and council tax these will be stopped until you can prove that you are eligible for the Carer’s allowance benefits.  Your local council will be informed of or about your award and suspend the benefits but they are reinstated once you prove your eligibility for the Carer’s award. My wife’s award I scanned it via email which they accepted and all our housing benefits where restated.you can earn up to £123 per week before the benefit is affected.

poppy123456

@wilko that’s not correct, sorry. Housing benefit and council tax reduction will not be stopped or suspended while a decision is made on the carers allowance claim. Both benefits will continue as normal. 

KellyCornwall

poppy123456 said:

Hi,

There’s thousands of people that claim benefits every day and this causes backlogs. Unfortunately there’s really nothing we can do about backlogs. Thankfully, it will be backdated to the start of the PIP award. However, if you claim another certain benefit then you may not receive the full amount of carers allowance backdated. 

Hi, I do not claim any other benefits and was told I should of applied for this years ago but I never thought I was eligible as I was her parent. I heard somewhere though that they only backdate it for 3 months. I will give it another few weeks and see if I hear anything. Thanks

KellyCornwall

wilko said:

Hello and welcome, yes it a pain the waiting but as you never had this income then the wait isn’t to bad, you may find that if your claiming other benefits, housing and council tax these will be stopped until you can prove that you are eligible for the Carer’s allowance benefits.  Your local council will be informed of or about your award and suspend the benefits but they are reinstated once you prove your eligibility for the Carer’s award. My wife’s award I scanned it via email which they accepted and all our housing benefits where restated.you can earn up to £123 per week before the benefit is affected.

my thoughts exactly, I have never had it before and am not needing to rely on it or missing it, but would be nice as it would count towards my NI contributions I believe, I was just thinking about the people that do need to claim it and how they may have to go without heating or food while they wait, its awful for them.
I gave up work years ago to care for my child and have not claimed any benefit, as a family we do not claim any benefits but if I am entitled to this due to loss of income for not being able to work then I will welcome it. 

poppy123456

KellyCornwall said:

poppy123456 said:

Hi,

There’s thousands of people that claim benefits every day and this causes backlogs. Unfortunately there’s really nothing we can do about backlogs. Thankfully, it will be backdated to the start of the PIP award. However, if you claim another certain benefit then you may not receive the full amount of carers allowance backdated. 

Hi, I do not claim any other benefits and was told I should of applied for this years ago but I never thought I was eligible as I was her parent. I heard somewhere though that they only backdate it for 3 months. I will give it another few weeks and see if I hear anything. Thanks

Yes, 3 months is the furthest it's backdated to. Of course for someone to claim carers allowance the person they are looking after must claim a qualifying benefit. If your daughter wasn't claiming a qualifying benefit before January this year then you couldn't have claimed the carers allowance anyway.

If you claim child benefit for a dependent child then this pay NI Credits towards your state pension up until that child reaches 12 years old.

A claim for carers allowance could potentially take 8-12 weeks.

wilko

@poppy123456, when I claimed carers allowance for my wife our housing benefit was stopped, suspended as they where informed that we had additional money coming in. On contacting the council I was told that until we sent proof of carers allowance claim then our housing benefit would be suspended. On receiving the award notification letter I contacted the council again who accepted a scanned copy emailed to them and our housing benefit was reinstated and paid into my account the one month owing. This may not happen at or with every council. 

poppy123456

That's not what should have happened. Carers allowance shouldn't suspend a housing benefit claim, if you're receiving a means tested benefit like Income related ESA.

When i claimed Carers allowance just over 2 years ago, my housing benefit wasn't affected, it continued as normal.

KellyCornwall

poppy123456 said:

KellyCornwall said:

poppy123456 said:

Hi,

There’s thousands of people that claim benefits every day and this causes backlogs. Unfortunately there’s really nothing we can do about backlogs. Thankfully, it will be backdated to the start of the PIP award. However, if you claim another certain benefit then you may not receive the full amount of carers allowance backdated. 

Hi, I do not claim any other benefits and was told I should of applied for this years ago but I never thought I was eligible as I was her parent. I heard somewhere though that they only backdate it for 3 months. I will give it another few weeks and see if I hear anything. Thanks

Yes, 3 months is the furthest it's backdated to. Of course for someone to claim carers allowance the person they are looking after must claim a qualifying benefit. If your daughter wasn't claiming a qualifying benefit before January this year then you couldn't have claimed the carers allowance anyway.

If you claim child benefit for a dependent child then this pay NI Credits towards your state pension up until that child reaches 12 years old.

A claim for carers allowance could potentially take 8-12 weeks.

Hi, sorry for the delay in replying, things have been unprecedented worldwide right. My daughter was awarded DLA in October last year (I should of applied years ago but did not know about it for her) anyway I applied in Jan this year and when I phoned last week (9 weeks since I submitted my claim!!). They told me they were still looking at November and it would be at least another month since I submitted a claim.
So I wonder with it taking around 12-16 weeks to find out if I am able to claim carers allowance will they back date it to the date they received the claim even though i asked to backdate to October. As it will be months. It really is a joke.

poppy123456

It will be backdated to the start of the PIP award, which i assume was October as you said PIP in one comment and then DLA in another comment.

I totally understand the frustration with waiting times when claiming benefits but thousands of people claim benefits all the time so yes there will be backlogs. With the Covid pandemic then backlogs will only get worse so you could be waiting even longer for a decision. All you can do is wait.