Carers allowance

murtle1981

Hi there folks,
My mum in law gets high rate attendance allowance and so does my father in law. They are both riddled with arthritis and have both deteriorated alot in the past few months.
My MIL got attendance allowance first (was first awarded it last year) and my FIL tried to claim CA for her but he cant get it cos hes a pensioner however he gets carers premium or carers credit or something instead (30 odd quid a week)
A couple of months ago he was awarded high rate AA too. He cant look after himself never mind my MIL, he can hardly walk these days bless him. What i want to know is if my sister in law claims CA for her Dad, can i claim CA for my MIL? They need help but my FIL doesnt want the caring responsibility as hes a poorly man. And MIL cant look after him either.
My sister in law and I go up everyday to help them. She works 12 hours a week (mornings) so i go up for a few hours in a morning, walk the dogs, clean, make dinner, take them shopping etc and she comes up for a few hours in the afternoon/evening, cooks tea, walks dogs again etc. I know that one person cannot claim CA for 2 people so can 2 people claim CA for 2 people? Any answers would be greatly appreciated. Thank you

nannytone_2

yes ypu can both claim for looking after 1 of them.
you say you both go 'for a few hours'. to get CA you would both be needing to care for 35+ hours a week each.
do you spend 10 hours a day with them between you?

murtle1981

hi thanks for the reply,
yes we do spend 10 hours a day up there between us. I go up after the morning school run (while my SIL is at work) at about 9.15. I do housework, take the dogs out, do washing, do the dinner etc and im home at about 1.30. My SIL comes up at about 2.30 and does ironing, shopping, more washing, cooks tea etc

anmarj

what other benefits do they get? If they get Pension Credit then they may have Extra amount for severe disability worth £122 per week, and a carer premium of £34.20 per week, if your father stops caring then they lose the £34 per week, if two people claims carers allowance for looking after them and go into payment then they lose the £122 per week element, this could either put them down to the savings credit only element or take them off Pension Credit altogether and this means they lose any automatic entitlement to other benefits and may have to make new claims for different things/

You have to look carefully at their other benefits before making a decision

murtle1981

Hi,
I know they get pension credit or one of them does but they defo dont get the severe disbility thing of £122. My father in law gets 34 quid carers prenium but thats it.

nannytone_2

if they gey pension credit and both get AA then they should automatically get the severe disability premium as long as no one is claiming carers allowance.
it isnt paid as a seperate benefit, but will come as part of their pension credit.
you need to look into this as it could potentially lose them a lot of money

murtle1981

ill find out for sure tomorrow what they get because i know they dont get the 122 in with their pension credit. Mind you, i dont think they know what they get because ive asked them before if they get pension credit and they said they didnt know!

nannytone_2

they would have been sent a letter detailing the benefit rate changes sometime between feb and march.
this will list all the benefits they receive

NYM

I believe that your SIL would only be able to claim CA if she earns £102 a week (after deductions) or less.

murtle1981

My SIL earns approx £84 a week.

murtle1981

nannytone wrote: »

they would have been sent a letter detailing the benefit rate changes sometime between feb and march.
this will list all the benefits they receive

I will be going up this morning so ill help them find this letter and will post again later. Thanks