Universal Credit and CA

adam1979ross
adam1979ross Online Community Member Posts: 4 Listener
edited March 2020 in Universal Credit (UC)
Hi guys I am currently on UC and just applied for carers allowance for my mum. I am awaiting a backdated payment and was wondering if my UC would be affected by this?

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  • adam1979ross
    adam1979ross Online Community Member Posts: 4 Listener
    edited March 2020
    Hi I am on UC and recently made a claim for carers allowance for looking after my mum. Firstly does carers allownce affect my UC and will my backdated amount be taken into account for UC. So basically will i need to pay my rent from my backdated carers money. Or will UC continue to play
  • Abs_Scope
    Abs_Scope Scope Membership Team Posts: 292 Cerebral Palsy Network
    Hi @adam1979ross - its great to have you here in our Community. Have a look around the different boards - We also have specific board for benefits.
  • poppy123456
    poppy123456 Online Community Member Posts: 62,398 Championing
    Hi,

    Carers allowance will reduce your UC £1 for £1. This means that your UC will be reduced by £286 per month. You will then receive the £66.15 per week from Carers allowance.

    You need to make sure that UC are adding the carers element of £160 to your UC monthly payments and you will need to report the changes on your journal.

    If you asked for Carers allowance to be backdated, you will receive the backdated money from carers allowance as one lump sum. However, if you were claiming UC during all that time then you will have an overpayment for UC and you will need to pay that back from future UC payments.

    When claiming UC there's no financial gain to claiming Carers allowance because you can claim the carers element of UC without claiming carers allowance. The only advantage to claiming carers allowance is that it pays class 1 NI credits, where as UC pays class 3.

    Do also be aware that if your mum lives alone and she was claiming a severe disability premium in one of her benefits then you claiming carers allowance for looking after her will significantly reduce her benefits. Hope this helps.
  • adam1979ross
    adam1979ross Online Community Member Posts: 4 Listener
    Thats great thankyou. But UC won't take the full carers backdated amount from me as one lup sum, i can make an arrangement with them monthly? Because the backdated amount will come in handy as a lump sum so dont mind paying back monthly
  • poppy123456
    poppy123456 Online Community Member Posts: 62,398 Championing
    You're welcome. No, they won't expect you to pay the backdated money as 1 lump sum. It will be expected to be repaid monthly. So you will need to be aware that future UC payments will be reduced further.
  • poppy123456
    poppy123456 Online Community Member Posts: 62,398 Championing
    Answered on your other thread here https://community.scope.org.uk/discussion/70028/uc-and-ca#latest

  • adam1979ross
    adam1979ross Online Community Member Posts: 4 Listener
    Thats ok i can handle that as long as not in one go haha. so they will still pay my rent the following month? but some will come out of personal allowance for back dated carers money, is that right?
  • poppy123456
    poppy123456 Online Community Member Posts: 62,398 Championing
    The £286 will be deducted from the whole amount of UC that you're entitled to. As advised, you need to make sure you report the changes on your journal that you are a carer and then the carers element (£160) will be added.

    A claim for carers allowance could take 8-12 weeks, possibly longer now with the Covid19 pandemic.

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