Confusion can someone explain

Ineedtoknow07

Right, can someone give some insight.


1) If you are a full time carer, and your partner ends her job, can they be added to your income support claim as joint?
I'm confused, because they cant be a carer to the same person A) is caring for, so would they be excused from work and able to claim?

Because IS says there is a single and couple rate and I'm confused

2) Does the person providing the care automatically allow the partner to also be added to the claim once they are no longer working?

TELLIT01

All Income Support claims must include both parties even if one is working. Income Support is based on household income so, if you have a partner who has been working, their income should have been taken into account on the claim from Day 1. If you didn't declare your partner when you made the claim, or from the date your partner joined your household if it was after the claim had been made, there will be at least an overpayment and possibly an accusation of fraudulent claim. You need to contact Income Support asap to get things sorted out.

epitome

Yes agreed with TELLIT

Anyone who has an Income Support claim, must declare any partner they have to Income Support and any work their partner is doing.

So if the Carer who is claiming CA and IS has a partner who is working, that partner should already be on the IS claim as "the partner" and the earnings would be getting deducted -unless the partner is working 24 hours or more a week, in which case the Income Support claim would have to close.
When the partner's job finishes, the earnings are removed from the IS claim and the carer gets the full amount of IS. Or in the case of work of 24 hours or more, the Carer can make a claim for IS to begin.

There would be no lawful situation where a carer has IS at the single rate, and they are living with a working partner.

TELLIT01

I'd certainly like to get some reaction from Ineedtoknow07 as to why a single person claim for IS was made.

Ames

Based on the OPs other threads I don't think an IS claim has been made yet. They're talking about someone starting to claim CA, although there's been a complication that's caused a delay. I think they've misunderstood IS.

kingfisherblue

I'm a carer. When I was married, I couldn't claim IS, as my husband was working and it is based on household income. I could claim Carer's Allowance though, as it is a wage replacement benefit.

When my husband left, I was able to make a claim for IS (as a single person) as he was no longer part of the household.

Hope this helps.

epitome

Also, the carer can claim IS for themself and their partner

and the partner who has stopped working can claim JSA Conts or JSA Conts NewStyle. Which has to be declared to Income Support. It would enable to partner to get their NI credited whilst not working... But any JSA Conts paid would be deducted out of Income Support.