Benefit help and advice

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mwesty

Hey everyone, I’m Martin 


I work 30 hours week 
Partner does not work
4 children ages 2 - 12 
I would really love some help and advice as a partner to my fiancé who has recently been diagnosed with a mental health disorder (borderline personality disorder) along with anxiety and depression. It was diagnosed in may 2022 after a break down she suffered in December 2021 and the following months reaction to this means we pursued a professional opinion which revealed a long term mental issue which had been since she was a child and just been hiding it and/or ignoring it.

So as her partner I’ve tried to keep everything together but it’s been tough both mentally and financially for myself. Not after any sympathy 😂 but it seems to get help from the government (DWP and local council) is like getting blood from a stone.

So I worked 40 hours 5/7 days a week before this and was told by a doctor in January my partner could not be left to look after herself and children so from January - June I had to take unpaid emergency leave from work. Totally unpaid.

We claimed UC before this and still continue this. We provided a fit note in April which was backdated to January 2022 and have supplied another one from April 2022 - January 2023

We was told may she might be entitled to PIP which she claimed and was awarded standard living rate and standard mobility rate.

We have recently had our finances looked at as we have fell behind with bills and wanted to see if we was entitled to any help as UC had told us we wasn’t apart from PIP.
I returned to work June at reduced hours 30 and reduced days 4/7 to be able to care and support my partner.

we have now been told we could of been entitled to ESA and LCWRA along with myself should of been told l could claim carers allowance while I was off work. None of this was told to us and after a a phone call with UC they have said that the evidence is on our journal and she should have been sent for ESA AND LCWRA back in may. 

So we have now filled the forms in but wanted to know what we both should have been entitled too and if we should have any award backdated ? It’s all a bit of a minefield to me

thabk you in advance for any advice 

poppy123456

ESA is a separate beneft and can only be claimed if the correct amount of NI contributions were paid from doing some work in the previous 2 tax years. If your partner has worked and claims New style ESA there's no financial gain anyway because it's just deducted in full from any UC entitlement.

LCWRA is part of UC and if found to have this they will be entitled to an extra £354.28/month from the 4th month after they reported their condition, providing they sent a fit note within 7 days of this and continued to send them without any gaps until a decision is made on the work capability assessment.

However, backdated fit note aren't usually accepted so it will be done to a decision maker to decide whether they accept it.

You don't need to claim Carers allowance to be entitled to the carers element of UC. All you need to do is report a change of circumstances, the report being their carer for at least 35 hours per week. Your UC maximum entitlement will then increase be £168.81/month. Whether that will be backdated will again be down to a decision maker to decicde.