Carer's Allowance - Underlying Entitlement post pension age

Jaycee_Dove

Hi, I have been in receipt of Carer's Allowance as a full time carer for my mum. Although I was a carer from 2004 onward I did not qualify for this for several years as my income from books that I used to write as an author gradually decreased to below £100 pw.

In May 2013 I reached pension age and so lost my Carer's Allowance at this point. However, as my income had been minimal in the past decade and so I had no second pension my state pension was modest. So I chose to defer this as long as possible. My hope being that I could defer it for 2 - 3 years and so reach a level around that (£150 pw) that I would have got as a self employed person under the new flat rate scheme coming in around that point.

I was advised to register to retain my underlying entitlement to carer's allowance so that when I did choose to take my deferred pension I might still get Pension Credit. It was likely by then my modest savings (ISAs I had been using for many years to build a second pension on retirement) would have been eroded as I have had to eat into these over the past decade when not working whilst being a carer. These had been enough to prevent any pension credit had I taken my pension this year.

Anyhow I have just had a call from the Carer's Allowance unit saying they will have to remove my underlying entitlement even though I am still qualified for it because I am not taking my pension. They appreciate this is strange and are trying to figure out the best way to tackle my situation. They will let me know when they have decided what they have to do.

Does anyone have any advice on what I need to look out for here to make sure I am still covered as best as possible when I do choose to take my pension. I have deferred it now for 6 months but I think it is unlikely I will be able to afford to do so for my hoped for 2 - 3 years and will likely need to take it at some point in the next 12 months when I run out of savings to use as income.

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

anmarj

I know that claiming Carers Allowance is an excluded benefit for deferring state pension ie if you claim CA you cannot defer State pension but never come across as an underlying entitlement. I assume by that you are getting underlying you have been getting some other income that gave you the underlying entitlement?

Jaycee_Dove

Hi, Thanks for the reply. I was advised by my social worker to register my underlying entitlement for Carer's Allowance as - even though I had to stop receipt of Carer's Allowance on reaching Pension Age as they are not complementary benefits (ie you only get the higher of the two) - I was still a full time carer and so could take it if I chose.

But doing that would be foolish because it is only around £60 pw and my pension was double that. By deferring your pension and taking Carer's Allowance instead (even at this much lower amount) you lose you ALL of your remaining pension (ie around £60 pw) for as long as you take Carer's Allowance instead.

This negates any point whatsoever in deferring taking your pension (which I am doing to increase the sum from around £120 pw to around £150 pw as the new standard pension is to be for all from 2016).

In those circumstances half your pension is in effect 'stolen' by the state and not 'banked' so as to add to your pension pot once you end deferral. Consequently, nobody is going to carry on receiving CA after reaching Pension age unless their pension comes to less per week than CA. In which case they would take CA to get a higher amount per week than if taking their pension.

The reason for retaining underlying entitlement to Carer's Allowance is that this is a marker that indicates a higher income threshold for getting Pension Credit. When I do stop deferring my pension this underlying entitlement (assuming I am still a full time carer) will become important. And I am unlikely to be able to afford to wait the 2 - 3 years as I was planning to defer as I am struggling to survive on almost no income at all (just the interest from the remainder of my ISAs).

So most likely I will end deferral in the next 6 - 12 months.

This is why I have asked them to retain my underlying entitlement but they appear to not know how to allow for that.

I was just hoping someone had been in a similar situation and could advise what they did if continuing as a carer post reaching retirement age whilst deferring your pension.

anmarj

for getting underlying entitlement you have to have an overlapping benefit in payment for it to become underlying. the problem appears to be that you do not have an overlapping benefit. If the carers was put back into payment, you lose any entitlement to State Pension Deferral, so would not have any option of the extra state pension or lump sum with interest, you may only get the difference between the two, sounds like social services have misadvised you

pmlindyloo

I keep reading this thread over and over again. Am I missing something or misunderstood something?

The OP seems to be concerned that she is no longer entitled to the underlying entitlement to Carer's Allowance because she has deferred her state pension and was wanting to have this when she applied for Pension Credit?

So, when she takes her state pension why can't she reapply for Carer's Allowance? They will say she can't have it because of the overlapping benefit - State pension- but she will then have an underlying entitlement for Pension Credit.

Is that right?

anmarj

pmlindyloo wrote: »

I keep reading this thread over and over again. Am I missing something or misunderstood something? You and me!

The OP seems to be concerned that she is no longer entitled to the underlying entitlement to Carer's Allowance because she has deferred her state pension and was wanting to have this when she applied for Pension Credit?

So, when she takes her state pension why can't she reapply for Carer's Allowance? They will say she can't have it because of the overlapping benefit - State pension- but she will then have an underlying entitlement for Pension Credit.

Is that right?

If she got State pension she would get the underlying entitlement, but as she does not appear to be getting a qualifying benefit for it to be classed as underlying. If the carers allowance was still being paid and State Pension not being taken, then deferral does not apply, it is an excluded benefit, so therefore the customer would not get any options just the difference between the two benefits,this may be what they are trying to get around. Social services are talking about the carer premium for Pension Credit, meaning that the higher applicable amount would then mean the customer may qualify for PC when she comes to apply. But also wondering if Social services are thinking of the carers credit, but don't think that would make any difference.

or the OP has totally misunderstood Social service:)

Jaycee_Dove

Thanks for all the replies. The person who called me from the Carer's Allowance section on Friday did understand why I wanted to retain my underlying entitlement for the purpose of getting pension credit via the premium mentioned in the post above. They are just not sure how to do it as the rules (again correctly identified in the posts above) seem to prevent this.

Not sure why they have waited 6 months since I stopped taking CA or deferred taking my pension. Wheels move slowly I guess. But they did say there were several possible ways around the problem and they were just taking advice to identify the best option.

All I was really wondering was how anyone else had dealt with this - ie if someone had stopped taking CA as they reached pension age but also deferred taking their pension.

I guess it may come down to just reapplying next year when I take my pension in order to re-establish underlying entitlement, but I was specifically advised to request an ongoing attachment to my file during my pension deferment period. This they had done. Hence their call to me when someone at the department evidently realised it was not that straightforward.

I am not looking for extra money now. Just trying to figure out what to do when I have to stop my deferment period as I will shortly need to do I suspect.

Jaycee_Dove

Just to update, I had another call from someone else at the Carer's Allowance office.

They told me they had to cancel my Carer's Allowance entitlement entirely and back date this to 6 months ago. Which I thought they had done (not least because it stopped being paid into my bank at that point as I reached pension age and I have not had any money paid in since that period).

But they suggested I just reapply for CA when I choose to take my pension. I will not get it awarded, of course, as I will be above the £100 pw income via my pension. But they say they should be able to reinstall the credit that might allow me to get Pension Credit via the higher threshold for a carer.

I am okay with that.

Though I wonder if I should contact the pensions people just to be sure none of this will create problems with my deferral. As after 6 months I should have already accrued a few pounds extra per week.

SandraScarlett

Jaycee_Dove wrote: »

Just to update, I had another call from someone else at the Carer's Allowance office.

They told me they had to cancel my Carer's Allowance entitlement entirely and back date this to 6 months ago. Which I thought they had done (not least because it stopped being paid into my bank at that point as I reached pension age and I have not had any money paid in since that period).

But they suggested I just reapply for CA when I choose to take my pension. I will not get it awarded, of course, as I will be above the £100 pw income via my pension. But they say they should be able to reinstall the credit that might allow me to get Pension Credit via the higher threshold for a carer.

I am okay with that.

Though I wonder if I should contact the pensions people just to be sure none of this will create problems with my deferral. As after 6 months I should have already accrued a few pounds extra per week.

The £100 pw income doesn't apply - it's just due to the 2 benefits. I get less than £80 per week SRP, and care 24/7 for my husband with Stage 6 Alzheimer's, but I don't get CA, just the Underlying Entitlement. As I don't qualify for Pension Credit, this is nil.

I know that the media frequently have articles such as "Fairness for Carers - a New Way Forward", or something equally untrue, but there isn't a very big slice of the National Cake available for us.

I wish you and your Mum well.

xx