Carer's Allowance - stunned

thefenman

My "famous for 30 seconds" was a sound bite I recorded for Radio 4's "You and Yours" in January 2008.

Gordon Brown had been on the programme rabbiting on about how the nation valued its carers and that he wanted to do more for them. My beef was that as a pensioner, although I'd given up a part-time taxi driving job which netted about £100 a week to care for my wife with terminal cancer (she has since died), I couldn't have carers' allowance because my State Pension was already in excess of the carers' allowance I was otherwise eligible for, I couldn't have it.

How dare they regard the pension for which I worked and paid for all my life as a "benefit"?

My comments were broadcast on "Y&Y" and repeated during the year-end review but as far as I am aware, nothing has changed.

arunadasi

I signed.
At the moment I work two days a week and for the other two days I have arrangements with my son/daughter, and a respite home one day a week.
I am not eligible for CA because my income is above £95/week. On the other hand, if I did not have ot care for my husband I could work full time for twice that!
My work contract ends in June and then I will apply for CA.

But I have a problem an dhopefully someone knows an answer:
Myhusband does not get Disability Benefits because he is German and gets them from Germany. It's a different system there; they have three "Levels" of disability and he is currently on the lowest level, but it's VERY hard to get even that; we had to apply twice because the first time he was rejected and we had to apply a year later.
I'm wondering who does the assessments, and how we can get his German "level" translated into UK terms.

PolishBigSpender

As far as I know, you can transfer your social contributions between EU countries - which would presumably allow him to claim for UK benefits. I transferred my National Insurance contributions to Poland when I moved back, which was nice.

arunadasi

I've been thinking about it and I believe I've been making a big mistake.

The German allowance hubby is getting IS the German Carer's Allowance, except that it is paid to him, not to me! He is supposed to pay me out of this. I know that, because if, for instance, he has a temporary professional carer the money she gets is subtracted from his allowance.

There is actually no equivalent for the Disablity Living Allowance in Germany. The Carer's Allowance he gets is at the three levels Imentioned: At Level one it is EUR 215 a month, Level 2 (probably someone in a wheelchair) is about EUR 600 a month and level 3 (bedridden) is over EUR 1000; that is for a family member carer.

So I assume this means he can apply for DLA in the UK???

I definitely would not like the Level 1 allowance he gets from germany to be translated into a UK CA just in case he gets worse, because then I would get more money, unlike in the UK. Also, they pay into my pension fund for the time that I am taking care of him, which is good.

Lady_K

A member of my family gets carer allowance for her 12 year old son who has adhd. She was not working so did not give up a job for this, she gets the same amount of carers allowance money as someone would for looking after a person who needs total care. I know it can be difficult having a child with adhd but the care she has to give him is nothing compared to what some people have to do that care for a person day and night.

If they do sort this out I think it there should be different levels of carers allowance tailored to the amount of care they have to give the person.

traz39

i have just signed number 510

allydowd

alibongo1966 wrote: »

My mum tried to get CA - and was told she was too old!!!! Dont figure - she lives with him and looks after him but is too old to get paid for doing so...

The age rules are quite complicated. Some people can get it when they are over 65. Whatyou can't do is have a State Pension and Carers Allowance at the same time. Details here:

CA link

You also can't Carers Allowance if you spend 21 hours or more at college, even if that is your only break from caring. And you can't claim Carers Allowance when you are on Summer holiday from college either.

allydowd

arunadasi wrote: »

The German allowance hubby is getting IS the German Carer's Allowance, except that it is paid to him, not to me! He is supposed to pay me out of this. I know that, because if, for instance, he has a temporary professional carer the money she gets is subtracted from his allowance.

There is actually no equivalent for the Disablity Living Allowance in Germany. The Carer's Allowance he gets is at the three levels Imentioned: At Level one it is EUR 215 a month, Level 2 (probably someone in a wheelchair) is about EUR 600 a month and level 3 (bedridden) is over EUR 1000; that is for a family member carer.

So I assume this means he can apply for DLA in the UK???

To get Disability Living Allowance you must:

be normally resident in Great Britain (England, Scotland or Wales)
be in Great Britain when you claim
have been in Great Britain, Northern Ireland, the Isle of Man, Jersey or Guernsey for at least 26 weeks out of the last 52 weeks
not be subject to immigration control

Immigration control does not stop you from getting Disability Living Allowance if you are either:
a family member of a national of a European Economic Area country
working in Great Britain as a national of a country which has an equal-treatment agreement with the European Union - that is Turkey, Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia and San Marino
living with one of these workers as a member of their family
a person who has been allowed to come into or stay in the UK because someone has agreed to be responsible for your maintenance and accommodation

You may be treated as living in Great Britain if you are:
a member of HM Armed Forces serving abroad or a member of their family
a mariner or civilian airman working abroad
working in the United Kingdom sector of the continental shelf - on an oil rig, for example

Blakespops

arunadasi wrote: »

I signed.
At the moment I work two days a week and for the other two days I have arrangements with my son/daughter, and a respite home one day a week.
I am not eligible for CA because my income is above £95/week. On the other hand, if I did not have ot care for my husband I could work full time for twice that!
My work contract ends in June and then I will apply for CA.

But I have a problem an dhopefully someone knows an answer:
Myhusband does not get Disability Benefits because he is German and gets them from Germany. It's a different system there; they have three "Levels" of disability and he is currently on the lowest level, but it's VERY hard to get even that; we had to apply twice because the first time he was rejected and we had to apply a year later.
I'm wondering who does the assessments, and how we can get his German "level" translated into UK terms.

this is a link to the rules DWP use for people from EEC to say if can claim so hope it helps

http://www.dwp.gov.uk/publications/dwp/dmg/#vol2

beadle_2

i care for husband ,because i claimed carers allowance (which is classed as income) i no longer eligible for free prescriptions on low income HC2 certificate.i have had to spend over £100 on glasses,the same for a prepaid prescription certificate (5 items a month for me)and £45 on dental treatment.
dont mean to moan but im so annoyed.:mad: