Carers allowance - can someone do the maths for me please?

TomsMom

Brain not working today so can someone help with this please.

A person receiving state pension of £110.73 per week and small private pension of £132.21 per calendar month, pays tax.

Can this person receive Carer's Allowance for someone in receipt of high rate DLA?

Biggles

I've done the maths. It's £0.00.
;-)

The private pension doesn't affect it, but that fact that the state pension exceeds the carer's allowance means that nothing is payable.

TomsMom

Thanks Biggles. Sorry so long in getting back, I keep forgetting I have to subscribe to a thread now :rolleyes:.

When I looked at the govt site re eligibility it said

Work and earnings
You cannot get Carer's Allowance if you earn more than £95 a week after money has been taken off to allow for your expenses.

Expenses that are allowed are for things like:

some National Insurance (NI) contributions

Income Tax

half of any money you pay towards personal or occupational pension schemes

other expenses you have to pay because they are a necessary part of your job

so I wasn't sure what exactly applied if you're on a pension, and it doesn't state whether a private pension is counted.

So now I'm thinking - if only the state pension of £110.73 is taken into consideration, and income tax is taken into consideration, then the state pension less takes comes out at approx £88.60 (is my maths right?). Then that brings you below the £95 you're allowed to earn.

Am I going wrong somewhere? There's probably another page on the site I've missed.

Biggles

That's the 'Work and earnings' section. The problem is that you can't receive carer's allowance at the same time as certain state benefits.

The direct.gov website doesn't explain it very well, possibly this NHS page explains it better http://www.nhs.uk/CarersDirect/moneyandlegal/carersbenefits/Pages/CarersAllowance.aspx

NB In case it helps, there is a campaign ongoing to enable carers who have started to receive state pension to continue to receive carer's allowance, you'll probably find references to it on this or other consumer sites.

TomsMom

Thank you Biggles. I didn't realise that it was a "work and earnings" section. You're right, it's not very clear, doesn't seem to say anything about if you're receiving state pension, not that I can find anyway.

Thanks for your help, it's much appreciated.

margaretclare

State pension, and private pension, count as 'income'.

EdInvestor

TomsMom wrote: »

Thank you Biggles. I didn't realise that it was a "work and earnings" section. You're right, it's not very clear, doesn't seem to say anything about if you're receiving state pension, not that I can find anyway.

Thanks for your help, it's much appreciated.

Look at the overlapping benefits section at the bottom of the NHS link. It's unlikely you can get it, but may be worth applying as entitlement it could impact pension credit entitlement leading to other freebies such as council tax benefit.

TomsMom

margaretclare wrote: »

State pension, and private pension, count as 'income'.

Yes, that's what I thought. My head wasn't in the right space yesterday to add the weekly plus monthly pensions and see if it came to more than £95 per week after tax. Stupid I know, but just one of those days!

TomsMom

EdInvestor wrote: »

Look at the overlapping benefits section at the bottom of the NHS link. It's unlikely you can get it, but may be worth applying as entitlement it could impact pension credit entitlement leading to other freebies such as council tax benefit.

Thanks Ed, I'll go back and check it out.

Karelia

I cannot do the maths for my dilemma:
I had postponed claiming my state pension, with the hope of claiming it when reaching 65. However, a year later I started to claim Carers Allowance because of a disabled husband. I now understand that while claiming CA my state pension will not accrue any of the additions that normally build up when the pension claim is delayed. I cannot work out if I would be better off financially if I were to start claiming the state pension (and therefore not being eligible for CA). Can anyone advise, please?

TomsMom

TomsMom wrote: »

So now I'm thinking - if only the state pension of £110.73 is taken into consideration, and income tax is taken into consideration, then the state pension less takes comes out at approx £88.60 (is my maths right?). Then that brings you below the £95 you're allowed to earn.

Am I going wrong somewhere? There's probably another page on the site I've missed.

Doh! I'm so silly! I've now realised that I took 20% off my pension to reach that figure, but I didn't take into account your personal allowance before tax is deducted. Told you my head wasn't in the right space that day :rolleyes: . Sorry to have bothered you all, but thanks for helping me understand it anyway.