Carer's Allowance help

EmeraldEye

Could someone advise please on my current situation, I'll explain as much as I can below.

I have been on ESA support group/DLA low rate mobility since July 2015 and I live with my mum who receives state pension, pension credits, housing benefit and Attendance Allowance as a result of physical disabilities.

Last month we were advised by AgeUK that I should apply for carer's allowance because my own illness doesn't conflict with the care my mum needs but also told that because I receive ESA I would not be entitled to carer's allowance but could get an underlining entitlement which would add a carer's premimum to my ESA. I applied online and thought no more of it until a week later when on the same day I received an "invite" to apply for PIP and a renewal form for ESA. When I was first "awarded" ESA/DLA I never had to attend any medical assessments. I am assuming that because I applied for carer's allowance they are going to call into question my illness.

I filled in the PIP form/the ESA renewal and sent them off. Today I received a letter from the carer's allowance department saying the following,

"I'm writing to tell you that you are entitled to carer's allowance. Your full award notification with detailed information about your award will follow. This will be sent to you on or around the 05/12/16, and we will start to pay you carer's allowance from this date. As you have been getting income related ESA we may owe you some money but until we get advice from your local benefit's office we can not pay you any carer's allowance we owe you from 05/09/16 to 04/12/16. This is because you have already received ESA for some or all of this period. We will start weekly payments on or around 05/12/16."

I'm confused by the content of the letter, it seems like they don't know if they "owe" me any backdated money and in turn I don't know if I'm entitled to carer's allowance because I'm on ESA. Can someone clear this up for me?

I receive £230 a fortnight in ESA (It should be £250 but social fund deductions are made)
I also receive £21.80 weekly for low rate DLA (Mobility).

My mum receives,
State Pension £500
Pension Credits £60 (Should be more but deductions are made)
Attendance Allowance £55.10 weekly
Housing benefit, full amount of rent is paid

Any help would be appreciated, thank you.

Cheeky_Monkey

EmeraldEye wrote: »

Could someone advise please on my current situation, I'll explain as much as I can below.

I have been on ESA support group/DLA low rate mobility since July 2015 and I live with my mum who receives state pension, pension credits, housing benefit and Attendance Allowance as a result of physical disabilities.

Last month we were advised by AgeUK that I should apply for carer's allowance because my own illness doesn't conflict with the care my mum needs but also told that because I receive ESA I would not be entitled to carer's allowance but could get an underlining entitlement which would add a carer's premimum to my ESA. I applied online and thought no more of it until a week later when on the same day I received an "invite" to apply for PIP and a renewal form for ESA. When I was first "awarded" ESA/DLA I never had to attend any medical assessments. I am assuming that because I applied for carer's allowance they are going to call into question my illness.

I filled in the PIP form/the ESA renewal and sent them off. Today I received a letter from the carer's allowance department saying the following,

"I'm writing to tell you that you are entitled to carer's allowance. Your full award notification with detailed information about your award will follow. This will be sent to you on or around the 05/12/16, and we will start to pay you carer's allowance from this date. As you have been getting income related ESA we may owe you some money but until we get advice from your local benefit's office we can not pay you any carer's allowance we owe you from 05/09/16 to 04/12/16. This is because you have already received ESA for some or all of this period. We will start weekly payments on or around 05/12/16."

I'm confused by the content of the letter, it seems like they don't know if they "owe" me any backdated money and in turn I don't know if I'm entitled to carer's allowance because I'm on ESA. Can someone clear this up for me?

I receive £230 a fortnight in ESA (It should be £250 but social fund deductions are made)
I also receive £21.80 weekly for low rate DLA (Mobility).

My mum receives,
State Pension £500
Pension Credits £60 (Should be more but deductions are made)
Attendance Allowance £55.10 weekly
Housing benefit, full amount of rent is paid

Any help would be appreciated, thank you.

What part of that sentence don't you understand?

EmeraldEye

Cheeky_Monkey wrote: »

What part of that sentence don't you understand?

I really don't think there's any need to be so abrupt and rude, your nasty attitude isn't necessary but thanks for the reply.

NeilCr

I don't think that being invited to apply for PIP and renew ESA has anything to do with your Carers Allowance application. Everyone on DLA is going to be asked to apply for PIP at some time and ESA gets renewed. It's purely coincidence.

It sounds like they need more information to calculate the amount that you should be entitled to. Somebody more knowledgable than me will probably be able to give you some idea but you may just have to wait till early December for the full situation. To be fair that isn't too far away

anmarj

In order to get underlying enitlement you have to be in receipt of a contribution benefit, from the sounds of it you are getting income related ESA. This means that the carers allowance will go into payment. this means because you are in receipt of an income related benefit, then they have to offer ESA arrears, so rather than pay you back money, and then have an overpayment, they offer them the money. ESA need to recalculate your award adding a premium to your ESA and then take the carers into account. Once that is done they get back to carers to say what needs to be left aside, any arrears are then paid and carers then start paying you. It sounds like that AGE uk did not check your ESA award properly, which happens.

pmlindyloo

As you are on income based ESA the Carer's Allowance is counted as income for your ESA.

So you would get your ESA minus the CA but then a Carer's premium is added. The CA is paid separately. You would be better off by the amount of the Carer's Premium.

They can backdate CA but since you have been paid the full amount of ESa during the backdating period (i.e the CA hasn't been deducted) then they are keeping it simple by saying you would be entitled to backdated CA but this is equal to the amount of ESA that has been overpaid so the two cancel each other out.

However, the Carer's Premium should be backdated.

Also, from what you are saying I do not believe that you are being paid the correct amount of ESA.

You should be entitled to the Enhanced Disability Premium because you are in the Support group (check your ESA award letter to see if you are paid this)

Plus, you may be eligible for the Severe Disability Premium from what you have said.

It is also possible that your mum is not receiving the correct amount of Pension Credit as she may also be entitled to the Severe Disability Premium. If she is then your claiming CA could affect her money.

I suggest you get some help from CAB (or go back to AgeUK ) to check what you and your mum are getting.

bigbill

pmlindyloo wrote: »

Also, from what you are saying I do not believe that you are being paid the correct amount of ESA.


Yes they are £125 is the correct amount for someone in the income based ESA support group.

You should be entitled to the Enhanced Disability Premium because you are in the Support group (check your ESA award letter to see if you are paid this)


They get this already

Plus, you may be eligible for the Severe Disability Premium from what you have said.


No they are not just now, but might if they get PIP Daily living with the new PIP claim?

It is also possible that your mum is not receiving the correct amount of Pension Credit as she may also be entitled to the Severe Disability Premium. If she is then your claiming CA could affect her money.


Not entitled as daughter only has low mobility on DLA, this might change if PIP Daily living is awarded to you later ask again then.

See bold above for reply.

EmeraldEye

Hi everyone,

Thanks for the helpful replies.

My ESA money is accurate, I get the enhanced premium included already. My mum is not entitled to the severe disability premium because she does not live alone and I only get the lower rate of DLA, so as an alternative we were advised to apply for the carer's, although I agree that AgeUK were incorrect with part of what they told us (about the underlying entitlement as I receive income-related and not contributions). Thanks for that information Anmarj.

Thank you Pmlindyloo for your thoughts and thanks BigBill for the clarification. Also I think NeilCR is right (Thanks) December isn't that far away and I will wait to see what news I hear from them.

metrobus

Do you pay council tax?

Because if you do once your on carers allowance you can claim a 25℅ deduction due to
you being disregarded for council tax being a carer and then only your mother counts and in that case you will get the single occupancy discount 25℅.

I only found this out this week having paid 100% for the last 4 years whilst a carer,

In summary if you receive carers allowance you are disregarded when calculating the number of occupants and if then there is only 1 occupant you get a 25% discount.

bigbill

metrobus wrote: »

Do you pay council tax?

Because if you do once your on carers allowance you can claim a 25℅ deduction due to
you being disregarded for council tax being a carer and then only your mother counts and in that case you will get the single occupancy discount 25℅.

I only found this out this week having paid 100% for the last 4 years whilst a carer,

In summary if you receive carers allowance you are disregarded when calculating the number of occupants and if then there is only 1 occupant you get a 25% discount.

That's not correct sorry.


Mum only has low rate AA so the carer discount does not apply.


It only applies if you have someone living with you who has / is?


On a qualifying benefit
Over 18
Not your partner


You do not need to claim or be eligible for the carers allowance to get the discount and more importantly more than one adult can get the discount / disregard for one disabled person.

metrobus

http://www.royalgreenwich.gov.uk/info/59/council_tax_-_discount/470/carers_or_care_workers_council_tax_discount

It applies to all levels of AA