Carer's Allowance - reporting income

Lola16
Lola16 Community Member Posts: 10 Listener
in Universal Credit (UC)
Will it be necessary to report income in my Journal - albeit zero in my case as I have no time whatsoever to take on paid work - when claiming Carers Allowance alongside UC ? Or will I have to inform zero to the CA team every month - does CA have an assessment period like UC ?

How does it all work ?


Comments

  • calcotti
    calcotti Community Member Posts: 10,000 Championing
    edited June 2023
    You do not have to report anything to CA unless you start earning and your earnings exceed the earnings threshold or if you start caring for less than 35 hours/week.
  • Lola16
    Lola16 Community Member Posts: 10 Listener
    Can I just double check with you once more that I do not have to inform UC that I have made a claim for CA - they will be told automatically ? I already have the Carer element under UC.

    Have little time to do all the admin things related to  benefits.

    Thank you for your input 
  • poppy123456
    poppy123456 Community Member Posts: 64,456 Championing
    They will automatically know you've claimed it.


  • Lola16
    Lola16 Community Member Posts: 10 Listener
    edited June 2023
    Thank you. This Online Community is excellent - so helpful.

    I see you are a prolific contributor - I trust Scope have thanked you for all your time giving much needed answers to questions.

    Best wishes 
  • poppy123456
    poppy123456 Community Member Posts: 64,456 Championing
    Thanks and yes they have  :)
  • RubyRabbi
    RubyRabbi Community Member Posts: 25 Connected
    Hi ~ I am confused about Carers' Element and Carers' allowance.  I receive enhanced PIP  and U Credit and recently applied for Carers' Element for my partner, who is my carer and with whom I receive U Credit.
    He does not work as all of his time is taken up with my care : the Carers' Element part is processing now but I am wondering if I should have applied for Carers' Allowance instead.
    He will not be working in the future as my needs are likely to get even worse as time goes by ~ which should have been better to claim for in the grand scheme of things, please, dear Clever Person ? 
  • poppy123456
    poppy123456 Community Member Posts: 64,456 Championing
    RubyRabbi said:
    Hi ~ I am confused about Carers' Element and Carers' allowance.  I receive enhanced PIP  and U Credit and recently applied for Carers' Element for my partner, who is my carer and with whom I receive U Credit.
    He does not work as all of his time is taken up with my care : the Carers' Element part is processing now but I am wondering if I should have applied for Carers' Allowance instead.
    He will not be working in the future as my needs are likely to get even worse as time goes by ~ which should have been better to claim for in the grand scheme of things, please, dear Clever Person ? 

    There's no financial gain when claiming carers allowance and UC together because it's just deducted in full from any UC entitlement.

    The only advantage to claiming it is that you're partner will receive class 1 NI credits for CA but only class 3 for UC. CA can also be paid weekly (or 4 weekly) and some find this helps with being able to budget a little better.
  • RubyRabbi
    RubyRabbi Community Member Posts: 25 Connected
    Thankyou so much for this reply ~ the Carers' Element seems to be taking an age ~ is there a three month assessment period or something, as they have agreed to backdate it to June 2022 as the DWP accepted my reasons for the delay. Should I chase this up, do you think ? Many thanks ~ RR
  • poppy123456
    poppy123456 Community Member Posts: 64,456 Championing
    RubyRabbi said:
    Thankyou so much for this reply ~ the Carers' Element seems to be taking an age ~ is there a three month assessment period or something, as they have agreed to backdate it to June 2022 as the DWP accepted my reasons for the delay. Should I chase this up, do you think ? Many thanks ~ RR

    There's no waiting period. It depends on when they agreed to backdate it to last year. Before they can pay what is owed they need to recalculate your past statements to work out how much you've been paid against what you should have been paid.

    Once this is done you'll receive a letter on your journal telling you how much they owe and it will then be paid into your bank. Sometimes it can take quite a few weeks to do this.

    Is the carers element now included in your statements?
  • RubyRabbi
    RubyRabbi Community Member Posts: 25 Connected
    Hi Thankyou so much......I have not seen any statement changes yet, although I did copy the current ones in case they miscalculate. Should I chase or leave it ? It's been 5 weeks already..... RR
  • calcotti
    calcotti Community Member Posts: 10,000 Championing
    edited June 2023
    The addition of the carer element should have been added to your next UC statement after he declared his caring responsibility through his UC journal. 

    (You said that you applied for the UC carer element for him but it would be him applying for the carer element although the payment will be paid to you as part of the UC payment paid to you.)
  • RubyRabbi
    RubyRabbi Community Member Posts: 25 Connected
    Thankyou for this ~ all clear to me now..... RR

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