Carers allowance and backdating 29 September 2018 at 8:57AM in Benefits & Tax Credits 14 replies 13.7K views

Sharky2010

Hi, my dad was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in April. I immediately gave up my job to become his carer as he needed a huge amount of driving to appointments plus various personal care etc as well as shopping, picking up prescriptions and so on. He applied for Attendance allowance and this was granted in July backdated to April. I have now applied for Carer's Allowance and just want to check it will be backdated to April as well. From my reading, as long as I applied within 3 months of his award date, then it should be. Is this right? I have obviously had no salary for the last 6 months so could definitely do with the money..... We are just about managing on my husband's salary but it has been very tight.
Thanks

calcotti

That's right provided that's what you asked for on the application. However when looking at your entitlement DWP project your earnings forward rather than treating them as paid in arrears so if you were earning over £120/week prior to stopping work you may find there is a period at the start of your claim that you do not receive any payment for.

pmlindyloo

Confirmed by Carers UK

Carer’s Allowance can generally be backdated for up to three months before the date you submit your claim, so long as you meet the conditions for this period.
However, there is an exception where Carer’s Allowance can get backdated further than three months. If you claim Carer’s Allowance within three months of the person you care for getting a decision about their qualifying disability benefit, then Carer’s Allowance can get paid back up to the date the qualifying disability benefit was awarded from (as long as you meet the Carer’s Allowance conditions for the whole period).
You need to ask for Carer’s Allowance to be backdated on the claim form, it will not be backdated automatically.

Sharky2010

Ah ok - yes I was earning more than £120 a week before stopping work. How far do they project them forward if that makes sense? I last got paid in the middle of April for the 2 weeks of April I worked. My dad's claim is dated from the 17th April which was a few days after my last paycheck....

calcotti

Sharky2010 wrote: »

Ah ok - yes I was earning more than £120 a week before stopping work. How far do they project them forward if that makes sense? I last got paid in the middle of April for the 2 weeks of April I worked. My dad's claim is dated from the 17th April which was a few days after my last paycheck....

The rules are quite difficult to follow but I think if you were paid for a fortnight the payment will effectively be treated as covering the following fortnight. There is then a complication around pay dates and benefit payment dates and when these fall. I don't want to even attempt a definitive answer - just wanted to give you a warning that there may be an initial few weeks that you are treated as having earnings and therefore not eligible for payment.

Sharky2010

Thank you. That's really useful.

pmlindyloo

calcotti wrote: »

The rules are quite difficult to follow but I think if you were paid for a fortnight the payment will effectively be treated as covering the following fortnight. There is then a complication around pay dates and benefit payment dates and when these fall. I don't want to even attempt a definitive answer - just wanted to give you a warning that there may be an initial few weeks that you are treated as having earnings and therefore not eligible for payment.

Would be interesting to know what happens regarding this.

My feeling is that if the pay slip shows that the amount of pay was for the weeks dated such and such (which it should show) then the OP would not be eligible for those weeks but would be eligible for the weeks after even though they were paid at the end of those two weeks. (What a dreadful sentence!) Hope you get my meaning.

This is based on the rules for claiming CA - you must not earn more than £120? per week to be eligible. Although receiving pay covering the following fortnight, the OP was not actually earning any money during that fortnight and therefore would be eligible.

Just my take on it.

Can't find the legislation for Carers Allowance - presume there is some!

w06

yep the friend that used to claim carers allowance for me did I think it was 6 days work, spanning two carers allowance weeks (can't recall what day they start on but it fell in the middle) and lost a months worth of carers allowance. He'd have earned about £1k in those two weeks but even so it didn't seem very fair.

calcotti

The rules are here https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/721751/dmgch15.pdf
Paragraph 15400 onwards deal with how the earnings are accounted for.
I know someone who was paid monthly and who waited 5 weeks for becoming entitled to payment.
It seems unfair because earnings are generally paid in arrears but the rules effectively work on a cash basis - you had a month's pay so you can live off that for the following month before the we (DWP) pay you.

Sharky2010

Thanks again everyone. It is clearly far more complicated than I can work out but entirely possible then I won't be paid for the first few weeks I was caring despite the fact I wasn't being paid a salary either. At least I am prepared!

pmlindyloo

calcotti wrote: »

The rules are here https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/721751/dmgch15.pdf
Paragraph 15400 onwards deal with how the earnings are accounted for.
I know someone who was paid monthly and who waited 5 weeks for becoming entitled to payment.
It seems unfair because earnings are generally paid in arrears but the rules effectively work on a cash basis - you had a month's pay so you can live off that for the following month before the we (DWP) pay you.

Thanks for the link.

Would 152340 Disregard of final earnings not apply?

Looking at example 1 (Kath) after 15341.