Carers Allowance but if you work...?

star2sparkle

Your reply lacked empathy. Please read the above quote! And if you read what I originally said I did not 'assume' earnings wouldn't affect benefits, I said it would! And of course (again, an indication you haven't read what was written) the person offering the advice was actually a benefits advisor not someone offering advice on being a carer! The last statement you said was true, but the only one, I shouldn't have asssumed.
I'm not answering you again now. I think you also should examine yourself and perhaps do a course in counselling and psychology!
But sod niceties...please, just go away! I was asking for a proper reply not someone to be deliberately antagonistic who actually doesn't know the accurate answer!

star2sparkle

Alter ego...replies lacked empathy at the very least. I kind of already know the answer to my original query but wondered if another carer knew. And yes, I would expect people from the benefits agency to know this information...of course!

harveybobbles

Go onto entitled to and have a play about with figures.

scootw1

star2sparkle wrote: »

Well judging by the two obnoxious replies, they don't know either! And don't know what it is like to care for someone full time, no doubt! Why bother answering to be like that? Go and work rather than wasting your time being unpleasant! Of course I don't think that someone should keep all their benefits and work! But I am a carer not a flamin scrounger! And what gets me is that the carers allowance people make it seem to people caring that they CAN earn £100 and keep their benefits. Try looking it up yourself. They just omit to say about other benefits and I can't help but feel this is partly a government ploy to make the figures look good...again. I'm prepared to work and earn nothing actually...and I do actually do this but would love to do more.

Don't mean to be pedantic or nasty but how can you work AND care for someone fulltime?

BigAunty

star2sparkle wrote: »

...
I find it very infuriating that people aren't made aware of this. I even tried ringing the carers assessment number and they know nothing about this, only about carers allowance which you could write on the back of a postage stamp!

There are currently more than 50 plus different types of benefits, credits and allowances in place so I'm personally not surprised that the Carers Allowance specialists are not hot on other benefits but if you contacted your local council about Housing Benefit (as it is them that issue it, not the DWP), they perhaps would have been informative.


There is no conspiracy of silence about how employment income affects income related (i.e. means tested benefits). I would say that the majority of claimants do know that employment income has the potential to reduce their benefits - income related benefits such as housing benefit and council tax are based on income! If the household income goes up, they can go down. While some benefits may continue when there is a change of circumstance, some may get affected by employment income - that's the absolute basics of the system.

Perhaps because you get Carers Allowance which is paid in full for certain levels of income, and DLA which is paid in full regardless of income, you simply assumed that your other benefits, like housing benefit, would be ring-fenced?

When you mooted going into part time employment as a Carer I wrote on your thread " To identify how your household benefits may change, enter the new scenario of your employment into the Turn2us online benefit calculator. "

And that benefit calculator should accurately forecast the impact of your employment income on your household benefits - did you not believe it when it demonstrated that your HB would be reduced or did it not show any drop?

It is a shame that the Direct Gov website doesn't explicitly mention that earning up to £100 could affect other benefits even if the Carers Allowance continues, but it is a summary page, there must be hundreds of different combinations of households and their benefits, so not really an easy thing to outline that would cover everybody's different situations.

It did, however, provide an explicit link to a benefit calculator that is headed "Get an estimate of what benefits (eg Income Support or Jobseeker’s Allowance) and tax credits you could get, and find out about claiming specific benefits. You can also find out how your benefits would be affected by a change in circumstances (eg if you find work)."

https://www.gov.uk/benefits-adviser

star2sparkle

Thank you BigAunty for a sensible reply.:j
I did actually try the Council but I'm afraid they also weren't up on the facts and just weren't sure.
I'm not into paranoia, but I do genuinely think there are people/carers who wouldn't realise the effect working would have on their HB. In fact, I have read about them here on this forum. They normally get told off for working and wishing to claim benefits at the same time!
I also believe the government want to massage figures, hence why they are saying someone who works five hours is now classed as employed and making sixth form compulsory so there are ess unemployed teens.
As for the Carers allowance benefit people not knowing, I think they should have some knowledge of the effect carers working could have on other benefits, especially a main one like housing benefit. They also harp on about earning up to £100 and keeping all of the carers allowance. Perhaps it is a conspiracy after all!
Thank you again.
Oh, have tried the turn to us and other calculators but often I didn't have the info required and actually managed to have different answers! hehe

over_flo

I receive carers allowance but also work the occasional shift via the hospital bank in order to keep up with my profession.
(My child will not live a normal life span and one day I will have to return to work)
I always keep within the limit of £100 per week so it does not affect my CA .
I don't know about housing benefit ,as I do not claim it but we used to be entitled to council tax benefit ,but I don't claim it any more as I was required to inform them every month how much I had earned so they could adjust the calculations!

Dunroamin

star2sparkle wrote: »

Thank you BigAunty for a sensible reply.:j
I did actually try the Council but I'm afraid they also weren't up on the facts and just weren't sure.
I'm not into paranoia, but I do genuinely think there are people/carers who wouldn't realise the effect working would have on their HB. In fact, I have read about them here on this forum. They normally get told off for working and wishing to claim benefits at the same time!
I also believe the government want to massage figures, hence why they are saying someone who works five hours is now classed as employed and making sixth form compulsory so there are ess unemployed teens.
As for the Carers allowance benefit people not knowing, I think they should have some knowledge of the effect carers working could have on other benefits, especially a main one like housing benefit. They also harp on about earning up to £100 and keeping all of the carers allowance. Perhaps it is a conspiracy after all!
Thank you again.
Oh, have tried the turn to us and other calculators but often I didn't have the info required and actually managed to have different answers! hehe

a. Sixth form isn't becoming compulsory - 16 and 17 year olds are having to stay in education or training, which includes jobs with training and apprenticeships.

b. Most people think that having fewer NEETS (not in employment, education and training) is a very good thing.

c. As hardly any 17 and 18 year olds can claim JSA, this change doesn't impact on the unemployment figures.

d. They "harp on" about being able to earn £100 and still claim CA because, as has been pointed out several times now, CA is a non means tested benefit (unlike IS/HB/LHA etc) and so this fact is true!

julie03

carers allowance is already taken into account fully for housing benefit purposes, so is treated as income already, so if you work part time as well , its just like getting a payrise, you have to pay more for your rent

star2sparkle

Dunroamin

A) That is sixth form!
The government is doing that to massage the figures and will cost them more! They need to start up industries to create jobs.
C)

D) Do you like missing the point! We all know this, my point was they need to make it clearer that working may affect other benefits.

Do you actually work? Or is your job to be antagonistic on a forum like this? P'raps roamin somewhere else would be a pleasant option.

Sorry, got bored and couldn't be bothered with C