Graded from esa to jsa

Sue_Alumni

Good morning @Eniskaya9

It is possible for you and your partner to each get carer's allowance for looking after each other. Normally this would disqualify you both from getting the SDP. However, when carer's allowance cannot actually be paid because of the overlapping benefits rule, the SDP would not be affected.  If you both have overlapping benefits so that neither of you are actually paid carer's allowance you could get the higher SDP of £138.80 and also two carer premiums.  

See Disability Rights Handbook 2022/23 Ch 23 

This would not apply if your family circumstances changed if, for example, you and your wife no longer lived alone or if you had someone else caring for either or both of you. As @calcotti says can you please clarify whether you have a carer coming to look after your wife and yourself as this is not clear from your previous posts.

Eniskaya9

Thanks for your information do we qualify for this would we be better of financly  not getting carers allowance and getting what you mentioned 

poppy123456

Sue_Scope said:

 However, when carer's allowance cannot actually be paid because of the overlapping benefits rule, the SDP would not be affected. 

That doesn’t apply here because the member is claiming Income Related ESA and the carers allowance was in payment with it being deducted from their ESA.

calcotti

Eniskaya9 said:

Thanks for your information do we qualify for this would we be better of financly  not getting carers allowance and getting what you mentioned 

You would be financially better off getting the double SDP and not claiming the CA. However your wife is getting Class 1 NI credits because she claims CA and this builds up her future State Pension entitlement. If she doesn't claim CA then she will not get any NI credits so there is good reason for her to claim CA (unless she has already got 35 years of NI credits/contributions).

You are getting NI credits because you are the ESA claimant so you don't need the CA credits.

If you have access to a local advice agency it would be worth getting a full benefit check and ask them to run some what if alternatives for you.

As mentioned previously I am at a loss to understand how ESA have been paying you the SDP amounts while you have both been receiving CA (although I am fairly sure that is what your letter showed when I saw it yesterday briefly before the images were removed). If I were advising you I would want to see all of the paperwork over time before recommending a course of action. Most likely it ian error by ESA but I would want to be sure taht nothing has been overlooked.