Carers - Advice please

mercman1969

Hi Folks,

In November 2009 we submitted a claim for DLA for our daughter.
In May 2010 my wife found part time employment and has since that time till present earnt around £4500 - This has naturally taken her sometimes over the £100 p/w you are entitled to earn

In January this year following a tribunal our daughter was awarded High Rate Care DLA. This I believe allows us to also claim carers allowance for her

My question is as follows

1. Do we apply to claim carers allowance from today
2. Are we eligible given what my wife has earnt since May 2010 till present to claim carers and request it be back dated to Novemebr 2009 as her DLA has been (original submission date)

My wife has continued to care for our daughter throughout this time and we would have claimed carers if the original DLA submission had gone through at the time of originally applying

I suppose the direct question is

Do they discount your carers allowance claim completely if at anytime you have earnt over the allowance or do they consider it on a year to year basis

Many Thanks

MrsManda

mercman1969 wrote: »

My question is as follows

1. Do we apply to claim carers allowance from today
2. Are we eligible given what my wife has earnt since May 2010 till present to claim carers and request it be back dated to Novemebr 2009 as her DLA has been (original submission date)

I suppose the direct question is

Do they discount your carers allowance claim completely if at anytime you have earnt over the allowance or do they consider it on a year to year basis

Claim now, I'm not sure how they work out backdated CA but I'm presuming they can because the notes state that if you claim within 3 months after DLA is awarded you won't lose any benefit. The best thing to do is fill out the application and provide all the information.
If you want to speak to someone before filling out the form contact the Carer's Allowance Unit on
Telephone: 0845 6084321
Textphone: 0845 6045312
You can contact these numbers between 8.30 am and 5.00 pm Monday to Thursday, and between 8.30 am and 4.30 pm on Fridays.

They take your earnings in to consideration on a week by week basis so if you earn more than £100 (after allowable expenses) then you won't get CA for the next payment period. According to the CA notes:

If you earn more than £100 a week
If you earn more than £100 a week, after we have taken
money off for expenses, we will not be able to pay your
Carer’s Allowance. How long your Carer's Allowance stops for
depends on how often you are paid. For example, if you are
paid monthly you will not be entitled to Carer’s Allowance for
the month after you are paid. If you are paid weekly, you will
not be entitled to it

Working out your weekly earnings
When we work out your weekly earnings we only look at
what you have earned after you have paid:
❉ National Insurance (NI) contributions
❉ income tax
❉ half of any money you pay towards personal and
occupational pension schemes.
We also allow up to half of the rest of your earnings for
paying someone from outside your family to look after
children, or the person you look after, when you are at work.

The quotes above come from the claim form which can be downloaded here:
http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/CaringForSomeone/MoneyMatters/CarersAllowance/DG_10012547

Or open the pdf directly by clicking this link:
http://www.dwp.gov.uk/advisers/claimforms/ds7001_print.pdf