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Carers element backdate

Rocs21

Hi I’m just wandering if anyone can help. I first applied for UC September 2019. I notified my work coach about caring for someone since the start of my claim. Last week I just realised I could get carers element. I wrote on my journal about this and was told that there was not enough evidence of me caring for someone as my previous work coach failed to verify this. I asked them if I was able to get it backdated from when I reported caring for someone, and they told me that it is going to a decision maker. Does anyone know how long a decision maker could take ? And also know that since I reported I was caring for someone at the start of my claim would I be able to get the carers element backdated? Thanks

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Comments

janer1967

Hi and welcome

The waiting time for a decision depends entirely on the workload of the DM so it's hard for anyone to tell you

As for back pay that will be what the DM is looking at

Did you not declare this on your application or through your online journal before last week

It will be difficult to justify to them if you didnt claim initially or before now

Is there anything you can provide as evidence?

I'm not certain but I think the normal back date is 3 months

Good luck and let us know how you get on

Rocs21

Hi and thanks for replying, yeah I have declared online when I did my application and has always been stated that I have been caring for someone since the start of my claim. So I do have evidence of that. I just don’t understand why my pervious work coach failed to look into this more when I applied.

Rocs21

So the evidence is since applying for UC i have declared I was caring for someone. I have never received any follow up on this and have never received any care element payment l on my UC. I have heard that they don’t usually backdate carer element but I do think I might have a case as it was declared back in 2019.

janer1967

That may help but also why did you not query before now about not getting paid it ?

Just playing devils advocate here

You said you only realised last week you could get carers element yet you put it on your application

Do you get the seperate carers allowance ?

Rocs21

I didn’t know I was entitled to carers element or that UC pay this, until last week. The reason i put I was caring for someone’s on my application is because it asked me if I did. Also I never applied for carers allowance as they deduct £1-£1 i also don’t need to apply for carers allowance to be entitled to carers element.

janer1967

That's why I asked about carers allowance in case you did get it and wasnt aware it would be deducted from UC

And yes your right you dont need to claim it to get carers element

I am just trying to help to make sure you know what you can claim as you wasnt aware of the carers element

Anyway good luck hope you get your back pay will be interesting to know the outcome for the benefit of other members

Rocs21

Ok thanks, I will update on the outcome.

Adrian_Scope

Hi @Rocs21. I'm glad @janer1967 was able to help you with this.
Can you still see in your journal where you originally told them you were caring for someone? At the moment they'll consider the change as "late reporting" so you need to highlight to them as much as possible that you made them aware of the change from the start of your claim.

Just to double check, does the person you care for receive mid or high-rate care DLA, Daily Living PIP or AA?

Rocs21

Hi yeah I was able to see I was still caring for the person I had said from the start and the person I care for is receiving pip . My case manager couldn’t update my carers element when I had mentioned it last week they told me I had to say I stopped caring for that person and so then reply I had to reply for carers element for the same person. It’s now with a decision maker to see if they will backdate my claim. I checked my statement carers element is now added on to my claim.

Rocs21

I had to remove I was caring for that person as it wasn't letting me update to receive a payment. I then had to apply again for carers element for the same person I already reported I had cared for on the start of my claim, which was advised from my case manager. Sorry hope that makes a little more sense. I did phone up and explained the situation about not receiving any carers element even tho I was entitled. They explained to me that my pervious case manager failed to verify it and that’s how I didn’t receive any payment. I asked about backpay which is now went to a decision maker. So just got to wait.

Rocs21

This was my conversation on UC about carers and what I was advised to do in regards to receive carers element

Adrian_Scope

Hi @Rocs21, that does sound like their usual procedure. When you re-declared the caring responsibilities did you put the date of change as the date your originally started caring?
Fingers crossed for the backpay. Let me know how you get on.

jull

Hi did you ever hear back? In a a similar situation

Caz_Alumni

Welcome to the community @jull.

I can see that you've already got started having a look around. And also, that you've got a query for us.

Do you want to give us a few more details so that our members can try to help you with your Universal Credit query? I know you've said that you're in a similar situation to @Rocs21. But it would be good to know a bit more about your own circumstances, so that our members can tailor their replies to your individual situation. If that's OK with you, of course?

Also, you'll see that I've tagged Rocs21 in my post. That's so that they will be notified of your post on this thread and hopefully, get back to you a bit more quickly. You can do the same when you want to address any of our members. Just use '@' followed by that person's username.

Hope that helps. Any questions, just give us a shout.

Rocs21

Hi jull
i have just heard back today I waited 4 month so I made a complaint last week and got a phone call today saying they are sorry that my claim even needed to go to the decision maker in the first place as it was a fault of a case manger that failed to verify my caring responsibilities, anyways they are now looking back to August 2019 - dec 2020 to calculate any backdated money from carers element that’s I should of had. Hope this helps.

Adrian_Scope

Hi @Rocs21. Thank you for coming back to update us! I'm glad they've now acknowledged the error and are calculating what you are owed. Fingers crossed you receive it soon (if you haven't already).

jull

@Rocs21 Thankyou for your reply, i have received a letter today to say that my case for backdate fits under special circumstances, do you know what the next step is & when it will be revived? Thanks

Crumbled72

If you get Carers Allowance, They will first put in Carers Element and then deduct the CA paid, so there’s no extra money coming in anyways.

No idea though how it works if you’re not getting CA.

calcotti

jull said:

@Rocs21 Thankyou for your reply, i have received a letter today to say that my case for backdate fits under special circumstances, do you know what the next step is & when it will be revived? Thanks

Don’t know how long it will take but if DWP have agreed to backdate the carer element to when the person you care for started to receive a disability benefit what they now have to do is recalculate your entitlement for all of the affected payment periods, compare it with what they paid you and then calculate the arrears due.

Note that their new calculations will result in DWP posting new statements for all of the affected periods and these will replace the calculations for the payments you have already received. Before they are overwritten you may therefore wish to make copies of all the statements to date in case you need to refer back to them

Monik1919

Hello, I would like to ask if I can file a complaint, I have been waiting for a decision for 4 months