Please help?

qwertyqwerty

Hi, I’m really hoping somebody could help me. No matter how many calculators I do, I still can’t get my head around this so it makes more sense saying what I/we get and then someone who knows more about it giving me advice.

I have cared for my dad since 28/10/2016 (the date he moved back local to me). I didn’t actually know I could claim carers so never did but he mentioned it to me recently. He gets higher rate DLA and I’m not sure whether he’d be affected if I claimed.

Now I receive:

ESA (partner) - £180.50 weekly but paid fortnightly

Child Benefit - £196.60 4 weekly

Child Tax Credit - £460.38 4 weekly

Housing Benefit - £92.05 weekly (full rent)

Council Tax Reduction of £1,005 leaving £213 payable per year.

I don’t want to switch to UC, I’m just curious whether I’d actually even benefit from bothering to claim this. Not only that, you can apparently get it backdated, how would this affect me, any chance of figures to back this up? Bit baffled.

Thanks in advance for any help given

poppy123456

For you to be able to claim Carers allowance for looking after your dad he needs to be claiming mid/high rate care DLA, you only mention high rate DLA but there's 2 parts to DLA. The maximum it can be backdated by is 3 months.

Before you do decide to claim it you need to find out exactly what benefits he claims other than DLA. If he's living alone (no other adults live with him) unless they also claim a disability benefit or are registered blind. If this does apply to him then he could be claiming Severe disability premium (SDP) in with another benefit. If you claim carers allowance for looking after him then the SDP will stop and this is £67.30 per week which is a lot for him to loose.

If he doesn't claim the SDP already, if he qualifes then he should claim it. If he doesn't qualify and you claim carers allowance then you would be £37 per week better off in total. You would claim carers allowance but it will be deducted from your ESA and a carers premium will be added.

qwertyqwerty

It’s him and my mother, their benefits are:

DLA higher rate on both,
He gets the care component also,
He has a motability car I have to drive as he had his licence removed due to his health getting worse. He has Parkinson’s.

Widows pension - £13 fortnight (him and his wife never divorced legally and when she passed he started receiving that.)

Mums pension - £138.25 a week

His pension - £198

They get housing benefit - £344 a month

Council Tax reduction (they pay £11 a month)

qwertyqwerty

Sorry that should say his pension is weekly 

qwertyqwerty

Would claiming carers mess up my partners claim?

qwertyqwerty

Sorry for all the messages but basically I’ve cared for him for years. Since being 16, that being said I have never expected a penny but I’m doing more and more and more (more than 35 hours some weeks) and it’s getting to the point that it’s actually costing me doing things in the long run and I’m struggling myself (although it might not look like I am in figures above that doesn’t show my outgoings). By claiming carers allowance I’d have been able to do it a lot easier without the added strain. Either way if I can’t claim it, that’s also fine I just thought I’d query it as I couldn’t get my head around the results

Whilst speaking about this to my mother (she struggles to care for him as they’re both in their 70’s and she has her own health problems) she’s asked if there was any advice on this widowers pension and if they’re allowed to stop it at all. They never wanted to get it but obviously when his wife (ex technically) passed, he got it and it’s stopped all of their things they used to get like free dental treatment, free glasses etc

calcotti

qwertyqwerty said:

Would claiming carers mess up my partners claim?

Assuming you are a couple living together and you are included on the ESA claim, if you claim CA your partner’s ESA would include a carer Premium of £37.70/week but your CA would be deducted from the ESA. The ESA would therefore go down but as a couple you would be better off by £37.70/week.

qwertyqwerty

But if it included that would DWP be aware it’s ME being the carer? He’s got mental health issues (possibly bipolar, he’s been on the spot accepted for a few years as he’s very bad) so if it came up he was a carer, to DWP it would make no sense lol.

Would any of my parents or my benefits be affected (minus the £30 from the ESA weekly)

It mentions Care Component on his DLA? Not sure what that means?

calcotti

qwertyqwerty said:

But if it included that would DWP be aware it’s ME being the carer? 

You would be the one claiming CA, there is no confusion about who is the carer.

qwertyqwerty said:

It mentions Care Component on his DLA? Not sure what that means?

DLA has two parts, care and mobility.

qwertyqwerty

calcotti said:

qwertyqwerty said:

Would claiming carers mess up my partners claim?

Assuming you are a couple living together and you are included on the ESA claim, if you claim CA your partner’s ESA would include a carer Premium of £37.70/week but your CA would be deducted from the ESA. The ESA would therefore go down but as a couple you would be better off by £37.70/week.

That is correct, he is my partner and we claim joint (his claim letter says yours and your partners living or something along those lines and then the components under it)

poppy123456

Does your mum claim a disability benefit herself such as PIP daily living, DLA mid/high rate care or Attendance Allowance? If she doesn’t the you claiming carers allowance for him won’t affect their benefits.
If you claim carers allowance then you would be £37 per week better off in total. The carers allowance will be deducted in full from your partners ESA, they then add the carers premium onto the ESA and you receive the carers allowance as a separate payment. As advised it can be backdated for a maximum of 3 months if you were caring for him for at least 35 hours per week. 

qwertyqwerty

I was just more confused as to whether it would appear he’s caring  for somebody when quite clearly, he is not. Lol. He’s barely fit enough to look after himself

qwertyqwerty

poppy123456 said:

Does your mum claim a disability benefit herself such as PIP daily living, DLA mid/high rate care or Attendance Allowance? If she doesn’t the you claiming carers allowance for him won’t affect their benefits.
If you claim carers allowance then you would be £37 per week better off in total. The carers allowance will be deducted in full from your partners ESA, they then add the carers premium onto the ESA and you receive the carers allowance as a separate payment. As advised it can be backdated for a maximum of 3 months if you were caring for him for at least 35 hours per week. 

Yes I was caring for him. I have done for years as I mentioned above. On the turn2us it said it may affect council tax?

qwertyqwerty

So without sounding thick. I’m used to fortnightly amounts of £361 ESA

in terms of them both what should I expect the amount to change to? (I have spreadsheets for all incomings and outgoings so I’d need to change a lot as you can imagine). As you can tell, I’m not the brightest spark lol

poppy123456

poppy123456 said:

Does your mum claim a disability benefit herself such as PIP daily living, DLA mid/high rate care or Attendance Allowance?

I think you missed this question so before you do anything else please answer this.

qwertyqwerty

Sorry I thought I’d answered, no she’s not claiming any of those 

poppy123456

Thanks. Your ESA would be £301.20 every fortnight. The carers allowance of £67.60 can be paid to you weekly or 4 weekly, you choose which one when you claim it. I claim carers allowance for looking after my daughter and receive mine every 4 weeks.

This makes you better off by £37.70 per week.

qwertyqwerty

Thank you so much, everything makes more sense now. Would my council tax be affected at all? I did read mine or his could be affected but I can’t remember where I read that?

poppy123456

You would also receive class 1 Ni credits when claiming Carers Allowance. At the moment because the ESA is in your partners name you're not receiving any NI credits (unless you have a child under 12 and then you would be receiving NI credits from child benefit).

qwertyqwerty

I have a 2,5 and 8 year old 

poppy123456

qwertyqwerty said:

Thank you so much, everything makes more sense now. Would my council tax be affected at all? I did read mine or his could be affected but I can’t remember where I read that?

Your Dad's won't be affected because it's you claiming the CA not him. CA is taxable income but i have no idea if you council tax would be affected, all local councils have their own rules. You should report the changes when your claim starts.

It can take anything up to 12 weeks to claim the CA, when you do claim it make sure you put the start date to backdate for 3 months. Best way to claim is online. https://www.gov.uk/carers-allowance/how-to-claim