Carers Allowance £123 and holiday pay

ohdrar

Hi all

I came on here a bit back with a post about working, self employment and carers allowance - thank you to those that were helpful last time (although did not appreciate being accused of troll)

I'm looking for some more advice please

After having taken the advice I've been able to take part time work at 10 hours per week but I might need to leave the job in February.

My worry is - if my employer chooses to pay my holiday as accrued on resignation instead of taking the holiday - in my final pay will the DWP consider me to have earned over £123 per week if I have both my regular 10 hours and paid holiday on top - instead of being taken.

(I'm asking as there's a chance I won't be able to take holiday due to probationary period.)

Alice_Holt

If you have over £123 in earnings, then your CA will stop / be repayable for that week.

You could then try to argue that the holiday pay should be averaged out over a longer period, if this results in being under £123 for all those relevant weeks. But, that is likely to be the subject for a subsequent MR / appeal

ohdrar

Hi Alice

Thanks for your reply

So there is a risk that I could loose CA but it would be for that specific week?

Do I need to notify the DWP that I am working (have done HMRC for tax credits) for purposes of CA? I could cope with loosing it for 1 week - not ideal but not the worst thing in the world when I'd have more money in that week anyway

If I did loose it - have you heard about how long I can have holiday pay averaged out over - as 10 hours at NMW puts me well under £123

Thanks

calcotti

The rules are complicated but I think how long CA may be suspended for depends on your normal payment frequency. If you are normally paid monthly then your final payment will be treated as a monthly payment and if this means that your weekly earnings, averaged over the month, are over £123 then CA would be suspended for the following month.

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/843575/dmgch15.pdf

Obviously the ideal thing would be to ask your employer to pay your holiday pay later and then the potential problem will not arise.

Nannytone

ohdrar wrote: »

Hi all

I came on here a bit back with a post about working, self employment and carers allowance - thank you to those that were helpful last time (although did not appreciate being accused of troll)

I'm looking for some more advice please

After having taken the advice I've been able to take part time work at 10 hours per week but I might need to leave the job in February.

My worry is - if my employer chooses to pay my holiday as accrued on resignation instead of taking the holiday - in my final pay will the DWP consider me to have earned over £123 per week if I have both my regular 10 hours and paid holiday on top - instead of being taken.

(I'm asking as there's a chance I won't be able to take holiday due to probationary period.)

Why don't you just take your holiday that owing and then resign

ohdrar

@Nannytone

As I say in the last line of my post:

ohdrar wrote: »

(I'm asking as there's a chance I won't be able to take holiday due to probationary period.)

Leaving within the probationary period

ohdrar

calcotti wrote: »

The rules are complicated but I think how long CA may be suspended for depends on your normal payment frequency. If you are normally paid monthly then your final payment will be treated as a monthly payment and if this means that your weekly earnings, averaged over the month, are over £123 then CA would be suspended for the following month.

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/843575/dmgch15.pdf

Obviously the ideal thing would be to ask your employer to pay your holiday pay later and then the potential problem will not arise.

Thank you very much for the link, in theory it sounds like I will be fine. This is because even with the accused holiday average out of the pay period 1 month then I will still be under the £123 per week as an average.

I will pop in and have a word as like you say ideally the holiday would be paid a month later to reduce any risk. Thanks for this advice