Carers allowance, state pension and housing benefit.

freakypea

Apologies for long post .
About 18 months/2 years ago I received a phone call from the dwp regarding receiving carers allowance for my partner. We are both on PIP...myself on the higher band and my partner on the mid band. I get very confused as regards benefits, payments etc but am a little better at it than my partner. The upshot of the phone call was that because I hadn't claimed an allowance for my partner I was given a backdated amount of around £3,500. The chap on the telephone waffled on about about it all and I was a tad confused but obviously accepted the payment. Fast forward to this March when I reached state pension age and received a dwp letter saying my Eesa was being stopped. I had no idea this would happen. I checked through my bank statements and discovered that even though I got the backdated payment for carers allowance I wasn't actually getting any more payments...(confused) I then tried to apply for pension credit only to be told that as my partner wasn't of pensionable age I wouldn't be eligible. Fast forward again to last Saturday when we received a letter from our local council saying that as I have become of pensionable age we would now not be getting any more housing benefit for our privately rented house and he would need to claim universal credit.  I am honestly scared of what is going to happen to us financially. Together with numerous health issues, I also suffer with aphasia (struggle to verbally communicate with others) so telephoning the DWP would be extremely difficult. If anyone could direct me on which path I should take now I would be very grateful. 

poppy123456

The backdated money you received was more than likely because of the couples Severe disability premium and not because of Carers allowance.

As you are a mixed aged couple then you won't be able to claim Pension Credit. You will need to claim Universal Credit as a couple. Your state pension will be taken into consideration as other income and will reduce it £1 for £1. If you receive any other pension then this will also be deducted £1 for £1.

UC is one payment with several different elements and can include help with any rent.

It would have been better for you to have claimed UC before your ESA ended because then you would have been entitled to the SDP transitional protection but if your ESA has now ended then you won't be entitled to this. If you were also in the Support Group for ESA then you would have been entitled to LCWRA element from the start of your claim. As the ESA has ended then you will need to wait 3 full months before this is paid.

You can use a benefits calculator to check if there's any entitlement to UC. https://www.entitledto.co.uk/benefits-calculator/Intro/Home?cid=f9d79123-f09e-4cb0-a080-bb4912045134

freakypea

Many thanks for the reply Poppy. Foolishly I didn't realise that my benefits would have changed when turning 66, ignorance is no excuse, but all the different payments and their represented letters was extremely difficult for me to comprehend (extreme brain fog) I will study your reply and check out the entitledto website as well. Your reply is very much appreciated.

calcotti

You should have been notified before you reached pension age by both ESA and Housing Benefit that they would end when you did reach pension age.