Carers Allowance?

lijaloo

It sounds to me as though social services have carried out an assessment and because of your income/savings you are required to make a contribution to your care package. If you employed someone as a PA/carer they might not be entitled to a carer's allowance because they earned more than the allowable amount. It doesn't sound as though your social worker understood that you were receiving constant attendance allowance and when the financial assessment was carried out this was treated as normal income.

moonman1266

Thank you all,

I spoke to the Benefits Enquiry line place but they were less than helpful. They did say though I cannot claim the Disability Living Allowance due to the Constant Allowance with the war pension. Also as someone said I am not able to claim pension credit in future due to some reason or other.

I am not sure how they worked out what I have to pay for my care. It seems to have gone up a lot. I got a letter yesterday from the social services saying the care, 16.5 hours per week would cost me £279.00 per week which is nearly all my total income plus I still have to pay council tax, electric, telephone, food etc. It would apparently be the same if I used direct payments to employ someone although again I am not sure how this is worked out?

I did look at some benefits calculator but it does not seem to cover my circumstances or work out care charges.

Thank you.

lijaloo

I think each local authority has there own scale of charges. I would ask them for an explanation of how the charges have been calculated and if necessary ask for another financial assessment and make sure you ask them to ignore any espenses which are directly related to your disability.

moonman1266

I had a chap round from the British Legion over the weekend who did confirm that my income is correct and that I receive all that I should receive (i.e. I cannot claim the Disability Living Allowance because of the add-on to my war pension). Nor can I claim Incapacity Benefit, ESA, DWP Attendance Allowance or Pension Credits etc etc now or in the future. I apparently cannot give up my war pension (or parts of it) to claim something else as it would be treated as if I still receive it - something about notional income? So what I currently receive is apparently correct.

However the British Legion chap didn't know (nor do I) what income my local Social Services take into account when working out what one pays for adult care at home. I understand it maybe different between authorities but is there a 'core' set of things that they include within the calculations and things they ignore? The Social Services say they have worked it out correctly but I cannot seem to find out how they arrived at the £279 per week for 16.5 hours of care and it does rather seem to take a lot of my weekly income.

Thank you

grummps

moonman1266 wrote: »

I apparently cannot give up my war pension (or parts of it) to claim something else as it would be treated as if I still receive it - something about notional income? So what I currently receive is apparently correct.

You are absolutely correct. If because of the war pension your income goes over the 'Appropriate Amount' you cannot claim Pension Credit.
Likewise you cannot just cancel it or any other benefit if it works out that you could get more by claiming a different benefit. There are losers and winners - structuring your benefit claims is very important if you want to maximise your income.

With the war pension you are stuck with it. Industrial Injury Disablement Benefit is treated just the same.

Also, you can't claim other benefits for another reason - you cannot have two 'replacement income' benefits at the same time.