income support as a carer.

colligpip

Does anybody know if I can claim Income support as a carer without claiming carers allowance ( The person i care for get high rate care DLA). The reason for this is that the person i care for looses severe disability premium if I claim CA and the loss of money causes a major strain on her mental health.

I would like to just claim basic rate Income support so I am free to care for her but I get mixed messages when i ask people . Some say you have to claim carers as well some some say you don't. Any help would be appreciated. I cant claim JSA as I am not free to look for work at the moment

If I ring up the benefits people and ask this I get very confusing messages. Believe me I would rather not be in this situation but somebody has to help her.

missmontana

Is this for your little girls mum? You seem to be going round in circles looking at past posts!
Is there any way you could take full responsibility for your daughter and claim Income Support as well as all the child related benefits. Then you could care for her mum without having to claim carers allowance.
How old id she? (your daughter)

munchings-n-crunchings

There will be someone who knows for sure, but logic says that you would need a reason and entitlement to be claiming income support.
Without claiming CA, you have no entitlement, unless you meet one of the other criteria, like being a lone parent and having a child under 10.

CA is £53.90 from the 12th April. If you claim IS, this money is deducted from your IS, and a Carer Premium is added, so you come out with £41.60 IS plus the £53.90 CA, from the 13th April.
So if you consider that the person you are caring for looses their premium, you will have quite a bit to consider.

Regards
Munchie

colligpip

yes it is my daughters mum whom i don't live with. My daughter is 10 her mother is very ill I am claiming carers at the moment but it means she looses her SDP (and as she is suffering poor mental and physical health its becoming very difficult). I don't want to claim child benefit as it would mean her mother loosing some of her housing benefit etc and i don't want to rock any boat for them. I would just like to be able to claim income support so i can help her out taking her to hospital etc. I guess i'll have to ring the benefit people again......as she wants me to stop claiming CA but still care for her.

Hopefully she will get better soon and I can go back to work but at the moment it is very complicated

Oldernotwiser

I haven't read your other threads but I can't see how your ex can expect you to give up claiming CA and still look after her. You can't live on thin air!

lizimuffin

Hi there,
My hubby claims high rate mobility and medium rate care DLA, when we first looked at claiming carers allowance for me, we went through the figures, and if I claim carers allowance, they take part of it off the care part of your DLA.....so what we did was hubby claims Income support FOR me as his carer, and because when working out IS they can only take into account your Incapacity Benefit (they can't count the DLA) we were entitled to £34 p/w income support.
We did this through the job centre, so I would say to go and have a chat with them (sorry if you've already done this, haven't read all the posts!)

Hope this helps.

Tehya

lizimuffin wrote: »

Hi there,
My hubby claims high rate mobility and medium rate care DLA, when we first looked at claiming carers allowance for me, we went through the figures, and if I claim carers allowance, they take part of it off the care part of your DLA I think you may have this wrong, I claim CA for looking after my husband and he still gets the same amount of DLA that he got before the claim. The only thing it has an affect on is his ESA as he now gets the single adult rate (support group) £95PW and I receive £85PW Carer's Allowance (this is made up by £53 CA plus a £32 dependent adult rate of CA) meaning we are now around £30 better off then we were before we claimed Carer's Allowance, this is the equivalent of the carer premium you get on IS......so what we did was hubby claims Income support FOR me as his carer, and because when working out IS they can only take into account your Incapacity Benefit (they can't count the DLA) we were entitled to £34 p/w income support.
We did this through the job centre, so I would say to go and have a chat with them (sorry if you've already done this, haven't read all the posts!)

Hope this helps.

I'm not sure the OP could do their claim like you have anyway as they are not a couple who live together as she must live alone to get the severe disability premium he mentions.

OP

I really think you need to be in receipt of CA as well to get IS slthough I could be wrong but I've never heard of anyone getting income support for being a carer without already having an award of CA.

Tehya

bigbill

You can get Income Supprt without claiming Carers Allowance as long as the person you care for has or is claiming a qualifying benefit and you are regualarly and substantially involved in caring.

See qualifying condition No3 in the link below

http://www.carerscentre.com/benefits-guides/Income-Support

[Deleted User]

lizimuffin wrote: »

Hi there,
My hubby claims high rate mobility and medium rate care DLA, when we first looked at claiming carers allowance for me, we went through the figures, and if I claim carers allowance, they take part of it off the care part of your DLA.....so what we did was hubby claims Income support FOR me as his carer, and because when working out IS they can only take into account your Incapacity Benefit (they can't count the DLA) we were entitled to £34 p/w income support.
We did this through the job centre, so I would say to go and have a chat with them (sorry if you've already done this, haven't read all the posts!)

Hope this helps.

DLA is NOT affected by a claim for CA

Tehya

I think I have found something that may help you and it seems I was wrong too. Don't mind admitting that though as it may help you or someone else.

I found this on the Greenwich Council website.

If you get Carers Allowance or look after someone who receives or has claimed Disability Living Allowance (the care component) or Attendance Allowance, you can claim Income Support without signing on.
What you get

The amount of Income Support you get depends on your circumstances.

Any Carer's Allowance you get will be taken off your Income Support - but you should still claim both. A successful claim means that your Income Support will increase, as it will include an extra amount called the Carer Premium. But it can only be included if you have claimed Carer's Allowance.

Carer's Allowance also gives you national insurance credits towards your pension.

It defiantly says (see where it says OR) you can get IS without a claim for CA so if I were you go and have a word with an advisor at the job centre and get the forms or whatever they want you to do.

Hope this helps, Tehya

Blackpool_Saver

I don't see how this could work in practice as anyone could say they are caring to get out of signing on...

I am a carer myself and in receipt of carers allowance.