Carer's allowance and ESA

PurpleCrutches

Hello,

I'm very confused about this - hope someone can help!

I'm on ESA, in the WRAG group, and I get DLA low rate care and high rate mobility. My son (who's 5) was also awarded DLA, at middle rate care and low rate mobility, due to autism.

My husband has claimed Carer's Allowance for my son, as he is the main carer for both of us. He received his award letter today.

It says they cannot pay him arrears because his partner (me) was paid income related ESA during that period. My ESA claim has not changed, so is my husband entitled to any money?

We were advised to claim rather than not, as my husband's national insurance is now being paid, but we found the letter very confusing. If anyone could shed some light, it would be most appreciated.

rogerblack

I'm unsure what's going on.
My limited understanding is that CA is not dependant on household income.
However.
Were you previously your sons carer, after filling out a CA form?
If so, you may have been getting the carer premium (£32.50/week) topup to your ESA - which will go away now your husband is claiming CA.
If you were not, then as I understand it, your husband would have (if not working) been entitled to claim CA.
Did he request backdating, or is it that the application has taken some time to process and only been granted recently?
Has your husband been working during the period of backdating?

PurpleCrutches

Hi - thank you for the reply.

This is the first time we've claimed Carers Allowance. As far as I know we weren't getting a carer premium, as my son was only awarded DLA at the beginning of January. The only people we told about this were tax credits, because I wasn't aware that any other benefits were affected.

My husband has never worked - he was a stay at home dad while I worked full time, then when I became ill he still couldn't work because I can't look after the children by myself.

The backdating was only to the date that we were awarded DLA for my son.

rogerblack

PurpleCrutches wrote: »

The backdating was only to the date that we were awarded DLA for my son.

I would suggest you ring the number on the letter, and ask for a statement of reasons on the decision not to backdate.
This should clarify why they couldn't, and if they have wrong information, will be a starting point to correcting the decision.

I believe tigerlilys below post answers the question of why no backdating - any backdated sum would be taken off pound for pound.

tigerlily

ESA income related takes carers allowance fully into account i.e if c/a was £50 your ESA income related would be reduced by £50. You would "get back" the carers premium. If this was backdated and also paid in full you would then have had an overpayment of your ESA. Usually the carers allowance office would send an offset request to the office which deals with the ESA so that they can then let carers allowance know how much of the ESA would not have been paid had the carers allowance been in payment. They would then give you the difference as an arrears payment (if there was any).

PurpleCrutches

I think I understand.

So Carer's Allowance is classed as income? Does this mean (in effect) that my ESA will be reduced by the amount that the Carer's Allowance is paid in the future?

mikey_bach

Your son has been awarded DLA from January so hopefully they have back dated your husbands claim to CA to this date. First if not then you are entitled to that, so check the CA award letter if its not then a quick phone call to them should sort it out.

With regards to the letter is says that no CA arrears can be paid but this means yet, this is because as Tiger Lily has said CA unit will have to send a recovery to ESA, its because you have been paid ESA for this period.

The section will return the proforma to them and you will be owed arrears of CA at a rate of £31 from the CA date of claim to the date when they say CA will go into payment. When they have sorted it out, CA will pay these arrears then CA will be put into payment and ESA will take it into account

When this is all sorted you will be £31 better and this will rise to £33.30
after April.

His CA will count as an income against you ESA but he will receive then CA direct and you will get the Carers Premium on your ESA..

Sorry if I havent explained it very well offsets of benefit are complicated, but at the end of it all you will be better off

epitome

And I will add my explanation:

When you/your partner get CA, it is deducted in full from Income related Benefits like ESA....so yes, it is treated as 'income'.

However, although it is deducted you do then get a carer premium , which is currently £32.60 a week.

You need to check the CA has been awarded from the date the DLA middle rate care was awarded.

Your CA will start paying from now, and ESA has been informed to start deducting it in full and start to pay the Carer Premium.

CA cannot be backdated becasue you have already had the same amount of money from ESA.

However, ESA now owes you an arrears payment of Carers Premium £32.60 per week to the start date of the CA.

mikey_bach

The recovery will cover the period from the date that CA was awarded and will take into account ESA paid, so if CA has been awarded for January to align with the DLA, arrears will be due, CA will be put into payment always at a future date, the recovery usually covers a twelve week period, this is to give the section time to correct the ESA claim.
CA will pay the arrears of the Carers Premium after the recovery has been done and they have put the CA into payment