Carers allowance to job seekers/universal credit

metrobus

After the death of a person that a carer is looking after I know they can carry on claiming carers allowance for 8 weeks,after that as long as they have enough NI credits from the last two years they are able to claim contribution based job seekers for up to 6 months.
When can they claim this,after the 8 weeks of can they make the claim prior to the carers allowance ending?
Thank you.

sportsarb

Is Income Support being claimed alongside the Carers Allowance? Or any income related benefit for that matter?

As for the question asked, the claim to another benefit can be made at any point along the 8 weeks, you don't need to wait for the 8 weeks to pass. It would be worth pointing out that if JSA New Style is claim and awarded, and there is an overlap in the two benefits, the Carers Allowance already paid would be recovered from the initial award of JSA and just the balance paid for the overlap period.

metrobus

sportsarb wrote: »

Is Income Support being claimed alongside the Carers Allowance? Or any income related benefit for that matter?

As for the question asked, the claim to another benefit can be made at any point along the 8 weeks, you don't need to wait for the 8 weeks to pass. It would be worth pointing out that if JSA New Style is claim and awarded, and there is an overlap in the two benefits, the Carers Allowance already paid would be recovered from the initial award of JSA and just the balance paid for the overlap period.

No they are not claiming any other benefits.

calcotti

If they claim JobSeekers Allowance they will have to satisfy all of the job seeking requirements.

If they have no other income and limited savings they could claim Universal Credit and would not be required to look for a job for six months from the death of the person being cared for if this was their partner/spouse.https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/benefits/universal-credit/

If it was decided to claim UC the CA will be taken into account as income and deducted in full from the UC payable but the maximum UC entitlement should include the carer element (although this may not happen unless DWP are pressed to include it).

Alice_Holt

I believe (but have struggled to find online confirmation) that following a claim of CA finishing, the New Style JSA NI contributions requirement is relaxed and not just limited to the two previous tax years.

I think (of the top of my head) that having paid NI contributions on earned income in the past (before claiming CA) would suffice.

calcotti

Alice_Holt wrote: »

I believe (but have struggled to find online confirmation) that following a claim of CA finishing, the New Style JSA NI contributions requirement is relaxed and not just limited to the two previous tax years.

I think (of the top of my head) that having paid NI contributions on earned income in the past (before claiming CA) would suffice.

There is a relaxation for New Style ESA. If you received CA for at least one week in the last complete tax year (April to March) before the relevant benefit year (January to December) then you can meet the requirement to have paid, or been treated as having paid, at least 26 weeks of contributions from any previous tax year (rather than in at least one of the two previous tax years prior to the benefit year).

However I am not aware of a similar relaxation in respect of JSA.

pmlindyloo

calcotti wrote: »

There is a relaxation for New Style ESA. If you received CA for at least one week in the last complete tax year (April to March) before the relevant benefit year (January to December) then you can meet the requirement to have paid, or been treated as having paid, at least 26 weeks of contributions from any previous tax year (rather than in at least one of the two previous tax years prior to the benefit year).

However I am not aware of a similar relaxation in respect of JSA.

Does this link help?

https://www.carersuk.org/help-and-advice/financial-support/help-with-benefits/other-working-age-benefits

calcotti

pmlindyloo wrote: »

Does this link help?

https://www.carersuk.org/help-and-advice/financial-support/help-with-benefits/other-working-age-benefits

Indeed it does. There is a relaxation but it is different to, and not quite as generous as, the one for ESA. To quote
"The exception for carers for contribution-based JSA is that there is a special rule for carers which means that the ‘relevant benefit year’ for working out whether you meet the contribution conditions can sometimes be the year your Carer’s Allowance began, if you claim contribution-based JSA within 12 weeks of a Carer’s Allowance claim ending. This means that you might be able to claim contribution-based JSA based on years you were working before you became a carer."

I was not aware of this rule, thanks pmlindyloo.

metrobus

Thank you for the replies.

So since they lose the 1st 7 days of their claim to contribution based JSA they are better off claiming it 7 days prior to the carers allowance ending,then there is no overlap in payments?

sportsarb

metrobus wrote: »

Thank you for the replies.

So since they lose the 1st 7 days of their claim to contribution based JSA they are better off claiming it 7 days prior to the carers allowance ending,then there is no overlap in payments?

I believe that waiting days will be deemed as having been served by virtue of the JSA claim linking to the CA claim, but as so much has changed in benefits even in the last few years, I can't say that with the 100% certainty that I would like to.

calcotti

sportsarb wrote: »

I believe that waiting days will be deemed as having been served by virtue of the JSA claim linking to the CA claim, but as so much has changed in benefits even in the last few years, I can't say that with the 100% certainty that I would like to.

I wondered about that and tried looking for some guidance this morning but couldn't find anything (either way).