DLA and carers allowance

adb2303

Hi,
Apologies if this is the incorrect forum.
My daughter receives DLA at the higher rate, including carers and mobility allowance.
My wife and I are divorcing. I look after my daughter for 1/6 of every month, with an additional 4x1 week periods throughout the year.
Currently, my wife takes all of these payments on my daughters behalf.
Should there be a split of the benefits, or should it continue to all go to my wife?
Many thanks,

Torry_Quine

To get carers allowance you need to be caring for at least 35 hours every week. Also earn less than £105 per week.

cattermole

I think he meant the daughter got the care and mobility element but could be wrong.

In answer to the question, the DLA is paid to a parent to meet the child's disability related needs. So no there would be no entitlement to parents sharing it as it is for the child and would be paid to the parent who the child lives with the majority of the time.

Mr_Lawnmower

Torry_Quine wrote: »

To get carers allowance you need to be caring for at least 35 hours every week. Also earn less than £105 per week.

For the purposes of Carer's Allowance, only one person can be treated as caring for a disabled person each day. DWP will usually ask the carers to provide a written statement of who is caring on which days if more than one person claims Carer's Allowance for looking after the same person.

Outside the four one-week full-time periods, the original poster is only caring for his daughter 1/6th of the time, which is likely to round down to one day. This will leave him unable to meet the 35 hours per week condition for Carer's Allowance to be awarded.

Any Carer's Allowance therefore belongs solely to the OP's wife, as it is a benefit awarded personally to her. The wife should not claim Carer's Allowance in respect of the one week periods where she is not looking after the daughter - the OP could claim for those weeks, but it's probably not worth the administrative hassle.


The DLA is awarded in respect of the daughter's care and mobility needs. It is not a personal benefit awarded to the ex-wife even if it is paid into her bank account. I would argue it is for the OP and his wife to agree on how this money is spent to meet his daughter's needs and that if no agreement can be reached, this should be sorted out as part of the divorce.

It does not seem appropriate to apportion the DLA based on proportion of contact time.

Torry_Quine

cattermole wrote: »

I think he meant the daughter got the care and mobility element but could be wrong.

In answer to the question, the DLA is paid to a parent to meet the child's disability related needs. So no there would be no entitlement to parents sharing it as it is for the child and would be paid to the parent who the child lives with the majority of the time.

He's not talking about DLA being shared but carers allowance which is paid to the person looking after the person getting DLA care segment middle or higher rate.

Mr_Lawnmower wrote: »

For the purposes of Carer's Allowance, only one person can be treated as caring for a disabled person each day. DWP will usually ask the carers to provide a written statement of who is caring on which days if more than one person claims Carer's Allowance for looking after the same person.

Outside the four one-week full-time periods, the original poster is only caring for his daughter 1/6th of the time, which is likely to round down to one day. This will leave him unable to meet the 35 hours per week condition for Carer's Allowance to be awarded.

Any Carer's Allowance therefore belongs solely to the OP's wife, as it is a benefit awarded personally to her. The wife should not claim Carer's Allowance in respect of the one week periods where she is not looking after the daughter - the OP could claim for those weeks, but it's probably not worth the administrative hassle.


The DLA is awarded in respect of the daughter's care and mobility needs. It is not a personal benefit awarded to the ex-wife even if it is paid into her bank account. I would argue it is for the OP and his wife to agree on how this money is spent to meet his daughter's needs and that if no agreement can be reached, this should be sorted out as part of the divorce.

It does not seem appropriate to apportion the DLA based on proportion of contact time.

I agree which is why I said you need to be caring all the time for 35 hours per week.

Poppie68

adb2303 wrote: »

Hi,
Apologies if this is the incorrect forum.
My daughter receives DLA at the higher rate, including carers and mobility allowance.
My wife and I are divorcing. I look after my daughter for 1/6 of every month, with an additional 4x1 week periods throughout the year.
Currently, my wife takes all of these payments on my daughters behalf.
Should there be a split of the benefits, or should it continue to all go to my wife?
Many thanks,

I think the OP means a split of all benefits the wife is recieving on behalf of their daughter AND the carers allowance.

Your wife will be in reciept of carers allowance as she provides 35+ of care a week, the claim will be in your wifes name.

With regards to the DLA this your daughters money paid through your wife on behalf of your daughter as she is deemed to young to manage money on her own , not money to be split between parents, as it belongs to your daughter, it's to make your daughters life as easy and as comfortable as possible and as she is spending the majority of her time with her mother this is were the money is best spent.

bll78

Mr_Lawnmower wrote: »

The wife should not claim Carer's Allowance in respect of the one week periods where she is not looking after the daughter - the OP could claim for those weeks, but it's probably not worth the administrative hassle.


.

Actually the wife can keep claiming during the periods where her daughter is with her father, you're allowed to have a break of 4 weeks in every 6 months and still maintain the claim. This allows for the person to go into respite, holidays with others etc.. Due to this rule he couldn't claim for the weeks he has his daughter. You don't say how old your daughter is but if you're paying CSA maybe the money flow could be adjusted to allow for your daughters extra needs when you are caring for her.

adb2303

thanks everyone, that makes sense...

KissMyPixel

Hi,
Apologies if this is the incorrect forum.
My elderly mum receives DLA at the higher rate, including carers and mobility allowance. She is in a care home at the moment (respite) but her social worker seems to think she will need to stay in the care home indefinitely. It's the mobility part of her benefit I'm confused about.. She uses mobility award to pay for a car, which is in her name, but I'm the designated driver (on paper). Will the mobility part of the award stop and will she need to give up the car if we decide she would be safer in the care home? Or will the mobility payment go towards the cost of her care?
Thanks in advance

xylophone

http://www.carersuk.org/help-and-advice/help-with-money/benefits-a-tax-credits/dla-and-aa/when-benefit-stops

http://www.ageuk.org.uk/Documents/EN-GB/Factsheets/FS52_Disability_Living_Allowance_fcs.pdf?dtrk=true

http://www.turn2us.org.uk/information__resources/benefits/illness,_injury_and_disability/care_homes_and_benefits.aspx

Robisere

Xylophone, for that Link " when Benefit stops.." many thanks! I am about to go into hospital and am on the cusp of changing Motability cars. This has clarified matters for me.

The situation is complicated by the fact that I will be unable to drive for 6 weeks after my operation, although the dealer has offered to keep my new car until I can use it.