Carers allowance pay weekly

Patchett86

My wife worked 14 hrs a week 2 days at 7 hrs and got payed averaged over 12 months.
A new company has taken over last year and started paying if she works any days they pay her it in that month. My wife did not think anything of it as she earns under the government website of £128 per week. We have recieved A letter from DWP  want over £1100 back. We phoned for information and they say HMRC you can only earn £554 a month in total. We can't find anything on website that says this monthly amount limit only you can earn £128 per week.
Any help would be much appreciated 
Terry, Helen

TELLIT01

How much does your wife earn per hour?

calcotti

£128 x 52 / 12 = £554 which is where the monthly figure comes from. 
If her monthly income varies she can request a Mandatory Reconsideration and ask that her pay be averaged over a longer period that one month.
Have a look at  https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/893673/dmgch15.pdf paragraph 15452 to 15456.
Quote the guidance to them when you request the MR, particularly paragraph 15455

Where there is no pattern the DM should average earnings over 5 weeks or some other period where this would prove more accurate.

Unfortunately there is no guarantee you will be successful. If you are not you can then appeal to a tribunal. 

Obviously you first need to work through the figures yourself and check that she is under the threshold.

pmlindyloo

I think the OP is saying that in some months she will be working 2 extra days (depending on what days of the week she works) taking her over the limit of £554 (which is £128 x 52 divided by 12 to give a monthly wage)
If CA have agreed that the fluctuating salary can be worked out over the year then you can appeal this.
It is likely that the CA will want salary slips every 3 months or so to ensure that the salary is fluctuating. and that the total yearly figure works out to less that £128 X 52.
Hope that makes sense.
Just to check what have her last few months salary been?  Do they show a fluctuation of earnings?

Alice_Holt

£554 is equivalent to:
£128 * 52 (weeks) / 12 (months).
So for employee's paid on a monthly basis £554 is the earnings limit. 
The repayment of £1100 indicates she was over this for two months.

Have a look at the averaging rules, to see if this is a possible argument. Did she earn less in the preceding / following months, such as to reduce the average for these joint months to below £554?
https://www.carersuk.org/help-and-advice/financial-support/help-with-benefits/carers-allowance
https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201719/cmselect/cmworpen/1772/177207.htm
However, this is normally applied to weekly earnings to arrive at a "pattern of earnings"

Going forward I would suggest her making pension contributions as these reduce the likelihood of this reoccurring.
"Half of any contributions that you make into a work or personal pension can be taken as a deduction from your earnings to help you keep your Carer's Allowance (a £40 contribution into a pension each month would mean a £20 deduction from your earnings – which could take you below the £554 threshold)."

EDIT:   Cross posted with calcotti and pmlinyloo.

calcotti

Alice_Holt said: Have a look at the averaging rules, to see if this is a possible argument.

https://www.carersuk.org/help-and-advice/financial-support/help-with-benefits/carers-allowance
https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201719/cmselect/cmworpen/1772/177207.htm
However, this is normally applied to weekly earnings tom arrive at a "pattern of earnings"

Decision Makers Guide includes an example of averaging over a two month cycle at paragraph 15454 and I see no reason why this cannot be extrapolated to three months if necessary.
15455 says “Where there is no pattern the DM should average earnings over 5 weeks or some other period where this would prove more accurate.”

OP, one point to note is that comments so far assume that your wife is working throughout the year. If she is a term time worker the wages should only be averaged over the weeks in which she actually works as noted in paragraph 15453.

The key underlying point is that CA entitlement is based on weekly income not monthly income. Monthly income has to be converted to weekly income to assess entitlement and this guidance is about the mechanism for doing that.

The governing regulation is Social Security Benefit (Computation of Earnings) Regulations 1996 regulation 8
https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/1996/2745/regulation/8
Regulation 8(3) says

3) Where the amount of the claimant’s net earnings fluctuates and has changed more than once, or a claimant’s regular pattern of work is such that he does not work every week, the application of the foregoing paragraphs may be modified so that the weekly amount of his earnings is determined by reference to his average weekly earnings—
(a) if there is a recognisable cycle of work, over the period of one complete cycle (including, where the cycle involves periods in which the claimant does no work, those periods but disregarding any other absences);
(b) in any other case, over a period of five weeks or such other period as may, in the particular case, enable the claimant’s average weekly earnings to be determined more accurately.

This is the regulation the guidance I referred to interprets.

calcotti

Alice_Holt said:

The repayment of £1100 indicates she was over this for two months.

Can’t recall ever disagreeing with you before but I don’t think that’s right. The earnings threshold over 2 months may be that but the CA paid over two months would be less than £600. £1100 is more like 16 or 17 weeks of CA.

Patchett86

Hi all thanks for feedback you have given us so great information to challenge this in a structured way and information to look at.

Many thanks Terry, Helen

Alice_Holt

calcotti said:

Alice_Holt said:

The repayment of £1100 indicates she was over this for two months.

Can’t recall ever disagreeing with you before but I don’t think that’s right. The earnings threshold over 2 months may be that but the CA paid over two months would be less than £600. £1100 is more like 16 or 17 weeks of CA.

      You are quite correct, calcotti.   I had the £554 number stuck in my mind (not the actual CA payments of c.£66 pw).

calcotti

Just to add, if wife works 2 days every week throughout the year then averaging over 3 months will probably be appropriate because you are presumably dealing with the 4week/4week/5week pattern. That would be consistent with every third month appearing to be too high resulting in an overpayment of about £1100 over one year.