Affect on benefits as a carer!?

scatz

My wife was diagnosed with M.E. some two years ago and at that time she was advised it's a condition which could improve, stay the same or indeed get worse over time. Unfortunately the latter is the case with my wife.

I work full time and also have three daughters, two of which are home schooled and the youngest who is in mainstream education but has autism (that's another story).

Of late though my wife is finding it increasingly difficult to do even the most basic of things around the house due to her condition. My mother in law is very helpful but cannot be there 100% of the time so I'm erring on the side of stopping my employment and becoming a full time carer for my wife but I'm concerned about the financial ramifications of this change! I've been through a couple of benefit checkers which give me details of the likely amounts of benefits that would be received but what it also mentions is that if my wife has a carer then a 'disability premium allowance' could/would be lost.

This is the bit I can't get my head around and what effect it would actually have.

We currently claim, DLA for both my wife and child, ESA for my wife and CTC for the children.

I may actually have the chance at voluntary redundancy in the near future so I'm really wanting to try and get my head round all the figures!

pmlindyloo

What level of DLA does your wife receive?

What ESA group is your wife in?

She needs to receive at least mid rate care DLA for you to be able to claim Carer's Allowance.

Disability premiums are only awarded for income based ESA claims. Because you are working then your wife will be on contribution based ESA and will not be receiving any disability premiums.

If you stop work then you can be added to your wife's ESA claim and, if eligible, you can claim Carer's Allowance.

The joint claim will then become income based and your wife will receive any disability premiums that she is entitled to. The one you mention - Severe Disability Premium - has certain criteria, one of which is that no one should be receiving CA for her - BUT she would not be entitled to that as another criteria is that there are no non dependants living with her - and you are a non dependent. In short, you needn't worry about your applying for CA and stopping her getting the severe disability premium as she wouldn't be entitled to it anyway!

Also, if you are added to your wife's claim it will become income based and therefore means tested so any savings you have (am thinking redundancy money) may affect it.

Sorry, it is so complicated!

You may want to think about going to CAB for a better off calculation as if you are eligible for CA then you may be better off claiming Income Support and having your wife added to your claim. It will depend on which ESA group she is in.

If you can't get to CAB then you could put details into the benefit calculator using your wife as the claimant and then you as the claimant to see the results.

scatz

Thanks for the reply.

She receives the middle rate care component of DLA and the higher rate mobility component. She is in the Support category for her ESA.

I fully understand regarding any redundancy payout but that will never last forever (that red line in my signature would no longer read the figure it does in any case) so I'm thinking more further down the line really.

It's not that I'm really wanting to give up work as I've worked all my life since leaving school and like to 'put back in' but it may have to be the only route as an option for my wife to have a better life.

Regarding the CAB. Oddly enough, my wife's mobility car is due for renewal in the next few months but because her DLA claim doesn't last for at least a year they've been unable to order a new one for her. As we haven't advised DLA that her condition has worsened we thought perhaps now is the time to apply for PIP (although that's a worry in itself after all the horror stories we hear) so she can be reassessed and also, hopefully, ensure she doesn't loose her only way of getting about (when she's able too I hasten to add). Anyway, point being is that she'll be enlisting the help of our local charity, HARC, for those forms so I suspect that'll be the best time to ask about this situation also.

I consider myself to be able work with figures very well indeed, always been my strong point but even I am confused by all the criteria/different benefits/the effect they all have on one another!

Andypandyboy

Not relevant to your question, but who does the home schooling?

merlin68

Personally i wouldn't give up work till shes been assessed for pip.
Does your child with autism get dla.

scatz

Andypandyboy wrote: »

Not relevant to your question, but who does the home schooling?

They are set work by myself, the mother in law is on hand and myself when I return from work They are 15 and 12 so more than capable of being able to 'get on with it' so to speak.

merlin68 wrote: »

Personally i wouldn't give up work till shes been assessed for pip.
Does your child with autism get dla.

Absolutely wouldn't dream of it! Yes she gets DLA also.

LocoLoco

Scatz, I gave up work ten years ago to care for my disabled son and it's incredibly hard! For us there was genuinely no other option (various reasons) but, apart from the drop in income (and possible effects on pensions etc) not having any other source of company, stimulation or anything else to focus my mind on has been very difficult, as has having to adapt to a lot of people's rude comments about being 'unemployed' and what I do not being seen or recognised as work (despite it being much, much harder than any other job I've ever had).

So I just wanted to recommend perhaps contacting the Carers UK advice line (email is easier than phone as the lines are very busy) and also posting on their forum for advice. There are a lot of experienced carers on there who could help you look into the possibilities of perhaps changing your hours, working more flexible hours (employers are supposed to help with this wherever possible), perhaps going part time or something like that, as well as helping you out with social services assessments to see if you could get outside carers to come in and help (or perhaps even just direct payments to help pay for someone else to do housework, for example, if that's something that is difficult to manage).

It's all very complicated and difficult to manage (and get your head around) and I've personally found Carers UK really helpful.

As a slight aside, one of the problems now with PIP is that a lot of people who do qualify are being turned down and have to go to appeal, which can take a terribly long time to sort out. If that happens, any other benefit that is linked to PIP will be affected so if your only source of income is via benefits it could cause a terrible problem for you. I am so concerned about this happening to us when my son turns sixteen that I've saved his child maintenance payments for the last four years so that we can buy a camper van in case we end up with no money coming in so that we at least have somewhere to sleep

So whilst I'd never say to anyone 'don't become a carer' I would always suggest to anyone thinking about it to have a good look round at other options first as for me personally it has had a very detrimental effect on my life in general and it has been very hard (although of course I love my son dearly and would do it again in a heartbeat as I do believe very strongly it has been and still is the best option for him).

PS My son has autism, along with some other difficulties, and we home educate too; it's been a real life saver for him

scatz

Thanks very much for that advice LocoLoco