claiming carers

whitenight

cabbage wrote: »

HI

there is nothing to stop you claiming carers allowance providing you provide 35 hours of care or more per week, are not earning more than £95 per week, not a full time student and are 16 or over.

This shouldn't affect your dla claim but can reduce the amount of benefits your MIL/FIL receives. I often do dla applications for couples who claim carers for each other.

I must point out though that hoovering, dusting, washing and ironing, shopping and paying bills are not classed as care needs. Care needs = help with bodily functions such as reading, communicating, washing, drying (the person not the clothes), helping in/out of bed, supervising them to ensure their safety, going out with them in unfamiliar places, helping them with hobbies, helping them get dressed/undressed, helping with medication/treatment, cooking and a whole lot more.

Carers allowance is also an overlapping benefit so if you are getting another benefit that overlaps with carers DWP will pay the higher of the two. The most common overlapping benefit is state retirement pension. However, to counter balance that you may get a carer's premium added to whatever benefit(s) you are getting.

My advice is to take their dla notification letters and other benefit entitlement letters and go to CAB or your local authority's welfare rights service and get them to do a benefit check on you and your mil/fil and yourself and then do a what if calculation for you claiming carers allowance and see what difference it makes. Then get them to help you with the Carers Allowance form if you still want to claim.

Hi
Having read the above thread does this mean I should not put in a claim for carers allowance because I am getting a private pension above the £95/ week? Is that classed as an earning?

sleepless_saver

whitenight wrote: »

Hi
Having read the above thread does this mean I should not put in a claim for carers allowance because I am getting a private pension above the £95/ week? Is that classed as an earning?

For some reason occupational pensions are not counted towards income when claiming carers allowance, but I'm not sure what the position is on private pensions.

nannytone_2

I'm going to sound really thick now, but whats new!
private versus occupational pensions

mum in law gets her pension from derbyshire county council. father in law from the railways. are these occupational? my definition would mean the organisation that employed you pays rather than a pension scheme that you joined? probably totally wrong lol
they get those pensions, plus state pensions. then they both get D L A and my father in law gets industrial injuries benefit. would any of that be counted and what about the care package they get from social services? would that stop? i don't really want to be showering her, and i'm sure she wouldnt like it either.