Been awarder carer's allowance, but letter seems odd.

Wicked_witch

Hi, I got a letter yesterday notifying me that I am entitled to carer's allowance for looking after my husband:T but am surprised at the dates in the letter. It says i will recieve my official notification and money on or about 30/11/09. Is it usual to wait five weeks between entitlement being determined and recieving the money with this particular benefit? The letter says that any back-pay will be included in the amount, so it is not a case of not being entitled before 30 November (there is also no reason why I would not be entitled before this date, ie no high income, work etc).My husband's DLA was raised as of 18/08/09.

I can and will ring them first thing tomorrow, but would appreciate any insights in the meantime. We are sooo short of money now i have had to leave work (beginning of may) and could really do with the extra! I am wondering if it is a misprint for 30/10/09 but to complicate things the 30th Nov is a monday and I know it is usually paid on a Mon. I did specify weekly payments btw...actually, maybe they didn't realise that!

Sorry if this is confused, just typing it up real quick before taking hubby out- I will hardly sleep tonight:eek:

Katykat

I think carers allowance is usually paid monthly, & this is how it is usually worked out. If you have requested weekly payments, its likely that you will get 4 weeks allowance on 30/11 & thereafter get weekly payments.

Wicked_witch

Thanks, that does sound plausible, although not sure why, in that case, it isn't the 2nd Nov (also a monday) since at that point I would -presumably - already be entitled to 2 months backdated. Suppose I will find out tomorrow! I actually made the claim from 30/08/09 because we had not yet been given the exact date the DLA had been raised from (even though the money was in our acct- that's how we found out about it!) but were just told on the phone it was from the end of august. It actually turned out to be from the 18th, but I decided not to try and change my claim in the interest of helping them process it faster.

beanybop

I get carer's allowance, and I get it weekly. Not sure if rules have changed, I have been getting it for three years now.

bigbill

That letter is used when they (Carers) need the time to arrange to reduce another benefit (Income Support ect) before they can pay you the full carers amount?

Wicked_witch

It looks like this might be the case bigbill- after literally hours of Googling, it seems that my husband will lose the dependent's allowance he currently gets for me, so we will be no better off at all (unless I am entitled to a very small extra amount for my son). I am pretty upset about this, because there is no mention of this rule in the notes I received. It does say that the person you are claiming for 'may' lose benefit, but only mentions severe disability premium, which is not relevant to us. Even the DWP website only says:

"If you claim Carer's Allowance, it could affect the amount of benefit the person you care for receives.
The person you care for could lose the severe disability premium in their income-related benefit or the addition for severe disability in their Pension Credit. If you only have an underlying entitlement to Carer's Allowance and are not actually paid it, this will not affect the benefits of the person you care for."

I couldn't find anything about it in the Incapacity Benefit notes either.

I eventually found the information tucked away on the hmrc site. I have no idea why it wasn't made clearer, many people care for partners after all.

I will probably cancel the claim for now, as I don't want them playing with our money this close to xmas and my son's 16th birthday. I will reclaim once we are more settled though, as it will give me better pension prospects, which is definitely a plus :-)

I do apologise to anyone who is offended by me appearing to complain about this. I am very happy to be able to get any help, but was really looking forward to not having to struggle so much.

Wicked_witch

Yup, just had this confirmed by (very nice) man at the office. I have decided not to cancel the claim as they seem very organised about getting the money out and the NI contributions are important. 65 (or 70) seems a long way away now, but then I never imagined turning 34 so quickly, lol, let alone my son being 16!!!

Again, sorry if my moan has upset anyone, we are darn lucky really and thank goodness for MSE!!!!!!!!!!!

bigbill

Another advantage of claiming carers is that you will now get the value of the carer premium £29.50 as an extra amount if you have Income Support, Income Based ESA or Jobseekers, or its an extra amount disregard in your Housing & Council tax calcultions.

So in any of the above situations you will end up better off.

Ruby_Moon

bigbill wrote: »

Another advantage of claiming carers is that you will now get the value of the carer premium £29.50 as an extra amount if you have Income Support, Income Based ESA or Jobseekers, or its an extra amount disregard in your Housing & Council tax calcultions.

So in any of the above situations you will end up better off.

She may well have got this before anyway.

OP we recently went through the same thing. My partner, the carer didn't see anything about the benefits that I received but I did. I got a letter saying that someone was claiming carers alowance for me and that if I was happy for this to go ahead I had to sign the form and send it back. It went on to say that I would lose any money I claimed for the carer if I were claiming anything like IS etc.
When the carers allowance was granted, my partner got a letter to say the benefit would be paid at so and so time but all the dates and back pay seemed wrong so he called them. They told him that they send the letter out automatically even if they haven't heard back from DLA yet and that he was not to worry, his figures were correct and the backpay would be with him soon.
You should be around £25 a week better off than you were before, plus you now have contributions paid too.