Carers allowance and uc

jefro17
jefro17 Online Community Member Posts: 6 Listener
edited January 2024 in Universal Credit (UC)
Hello everyone, I would like abit of advice please if possible, I have recently been awarded pip enhanced for both mobility and daily living, I also recieve LCWRA UC, my daughter lives with me she is in her 20s and is on UC she does alot for me in the way of caring for my needs and takes me to appointments as my mobility isn't very good and I'm also not very good at meeting/or going places by myself, I was advised yesterday on one of my appointments that she could claim carers allowance for looking after me, there are a few questions I'd like to no if anyone as the answers I'd be most grateful.

1) if my daughter put a claim in for carers allowance with UC would she still have to go to the job centre every week for work related interviews or does that stop?

2) how much money will she receive  from UC and carers allowance togeather each month as we have looked online and there doesn't seem to be a clear indicator as to how much she would receive each month after uc Take money off her because of claiming carers allowance as well as UC.

3) if she was to write in her journal on her UC app that she as made a claim for carers allowance do they then cancel any work related appointments they have coming up for her?.

4) can you back date carers allowance if so how far back can you go? And once you have put a claim in for carers allowance how long does it take for them to process it and do you have to wait for ex amount of weeks before you receive payment for carers allowance?.
I'd like to say thankyou in advance to anyone who is in this situation and can answer these questions for me.🙂


Comments

  • poppy123456
    poppy123456 Online Community Member Posts: 64,463 Championing
    She doesn't need to claim carers allowance to be entitled to carers element of UC., assuming she's not claiming the LCWRA element for herself. There's no overall financial gain to claim both at the same time because as you correctly stated it's just deducted in full from any UC entitlement. The only difference being that for UC she will receive class 3 NI credits and for Carers allowance she will receive class 1.

    To claim carers element, she needs to report a change of circumstances by logging into her journal. Then click caring for someone. Her UC maximum entitlement will increase by £185.86/month. She can ask for it to be backdated to the assessment period in which your PIP was awarded, providing she was caring for you for at least 35 hours per week and she was claiming UC at that time.

    If she does still want to claim carers allowance as well then it could take up to 12 weeks for a decision to be made. It can be backdated to the start of your PIP award providing she was caring for you for at least 35 hours per week and she wasn't earning more than the maximum amount of earnings, which is £139/week at the moment.

    She will not have any work requirements claiming either of them.


  • Jimm_Alumni
    Jimm_Alumni Scope alumni Posts: 5,713 Championing
    Hi @jefro17, I'm just going to move this over to our UC category :) Incase you have any follow-up information or further questions about Poppy's response!
  • jefro17
    jefro17 Online Community Member Posts: 6 Listener
    Poppy 23456 thankyou for you feed back but I am still left very confused! Spoke to someone at citizens advice today who didn't have a clue what to do they gave me a number for carers allowance unit and charity carers uk I spoke to both and considering this is supposed to be about carers they hadn't a clue either so my daughter is going to have to ring universal credits tomorrow, the lady said you have to fill a form out to apply to be a carer online and the other one said no you dont you just have to inform UC I was also told they only back date the claim up to 3 months, then the other lady said that you can claim the carers allowance from when you put your claim in, so as you can see I'm being given conflicting information and still non the wiser.
  • AndyH64
    AndyH64 Online Community Member Posts: 11 Listener
    Hi jefro17,
    I can confirm carers element in UC is an additional £185.86 per month as Poppy says. I am on PIP and have a joint claim with my wife who is my carer. My wife has no work commitments from UC as a result, though she does work part time. She can still manage my daily living needs. I assume 
    you may require more in the way of full-time care? It's not a fantastic amount of money but if your daughter is providing care for you it would make sense for her to claim and would no doubt help a difficult situation for both of you. I wish you all the best.
  • poppy123456
    poppy123456 Online Community Member Posts: 64,463 Championing
    If your PIP was awarded within the last 3 months then a claim for carers allowance can be backdated to the start of your PIP award. If it was longer than 3 months that it was awarded then it can only be backdated for a maximum of 3 months.

    As I advised in my previous comment, she doesn't need to claim carers allowance to be entitled to carers element of Universal Credit. Though it can help to budget a little more because carers allowance can be paid weekly but UC is a monthly benefit. 

    If she claims carers allowance as well as UC then it's just deducted in full. 

    Fist thing I'd advise her to do is as I advised here. 
    poppy123456 said:

    To claim carers element, she needs to report a change of circumstances by logging into her journal. Then click caring for someone. Her UC maximum entitlement will increase by £185.86/month. She can ask for it to be backdated to the assessment period in which your PIP was awarded, providing she was caring for you for at least 35 hours per week and she was claiming UC at that time.


    Once she's done that if she wants to claim carers allowance as well then she can do that online. Either way, whether she claims carers allowance as well as carers element then her monthly income will increase by £185.86.

Categories