carers allowance and child tax credit

earwig

hi just been awarded carers allowance for my son who get dla middle care low mobility my oh gets esa which i have just come of his claim because of my allowance but will my award affect my child tax credit and if so by how much as it seems it get taken up by other things it was 55 pounds but now oh esa was dropped by 24 pw so just wondering how much my ctc will drop down by and dose anyone know if hb is effected by this thanks

merlin68

If your on benefits, it shouldn't affect you at all. Why did you come of the joint claim, you should have stayed on it and would have got an increase.

kingfisherblue

As you get CA for a child who gets middle rate care, your child tax credits should increase. Contact the CTC office and tell them that you now get MRC for your son and you wish to claim the disability element of CTC. According to this link, it is around £53 a week extra:

http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/taxcredits/start/who-qualifies/children/disabled-child.htm

earwig

merlin68 wrote: »

If your on benefits, it shouldn't affect you at all. Why did you come of the joint claim, you should have stayed on it and would have got an increase.

thank you for your reply the people at esa took me of the claim saying that as i was now a carer my oh couldn't claim for me any more

earwig

kingfisherblue wrote: »

As you get CA for a child who gets middle rate care, your child tax credits should increase. Contact the CTC office and tell them that you now get MRC for your son and you wish to claim the disability element of CTC. According to this link, it is around £53 a week extra:

http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/taxcredits/start/who-qualifies/children/disabled-child.htm

thank you for your reply i allready get the disability element for my son i just claimed carers allowance as i just found out that i could but when i looked at the website for child tax credits it says that carers allowance is classed as an income so i worried now that my ctc payments are going to drop by a lot tbh i wish i never applied for this benefit now as it seems to mess other things up

merlin68

Well if that's the case, you should be entilted to an income support top up to £67 pound a week then.

NASA_2

earwig wrote: »

thank you for your reply the people at esa took me of the claim saying that as i was now a carer my oh couldn't claim for me any more

If they have taken you off the claim then they shouldnt have. Your income affects his claim as you are part of the household.

kingfisherblue

merlin68 wrote: »

Well if that's the case, you should be entilted to an income support top up to £67 pound a week then.

When you receive IS and CA, the amount of IS isn't as much as £67 a week. I'm not sure of the exact figures, but a carer's premium is added onto the usual amount of IS, then it is reduced by the amount received for CA (£55.55). You get around £40 a week IS. However, this then gives you a passport to free prescriptions, free school meals, council tax benefit, etc.

OP, if you have a carer's centre near to you, they will be able to do a benefits check for you, or signpost you to another agency who can offer this.

earwig

thankyou for your replys have spoken to esa who say that i havent been taken of my oh claim but the money has been reduced because of my carers allowance so i must of misunderstood what they told me the firstime but they coundnt help with weather my child tax credits will go down as well or weather or not i will lose some housing benefits

shortdog

I am on Carers Allowance, and it has never affected my tax credits (although I have to declare it), and it doesn't affect my housing benefit either.
HTH.

earwig

thank you i was getting worried everyone was telling me to claim this benefit so i have but it seemed what they gave you with one hand they take back with another like i said they reduced my oh esa and i was looking on the childtax credit website and it said that getting carers allaowance may effect your child tax credits and hb so i beging to wonder weather to phone the carers people up and cancle my claim as it seemed to be causing more problems than it solved but if this is true my child tax credit wont be effected and i will still get hb then it will be worth it as it will work out i will be around 30 per week better of i know ca is 55 per week but we lose 25 per week from esa because of it sorry im rambling now lol