Carer's Allowance after the person you care for dies

Alice_Holt

BooJewels said:

...she was working at home, using the internet to access the DWP system and it was unworkably slow.  

I have no idea how the place of death could be a criteria to ascertain whether you qualify for the additional CA - the myriad scenarios that might occur when someone is approaching the end of their life would make it impossible to make a decision based on that alone.  

         Quite. It would be totally illogical

          And like calcotti I have never come across such a home / hospital distinction.  I suspect the person you spoke to did not fully understand CA and was confusing 2 things.

         The Disability Rights Handbook (DRH) states  "CA can continue for up to eight weeks following the death of the person you cared for. Throughout those 8 weeks you must continue to meet all the CA qualifying conditions not related to caring..."   (These would include the CA earnings limit conditions).
       
 Nowhere in DRH is there any mention of this alleged home / hospital distinction.

      Nor in the DWP Decision Makers Guide, which states - 
 "...entitlement to CA can continue for up to 8 weeks after the death of the disabled person being cared for, provided that all the other conditions are satisfied. Entitlement ceases on
1. the end of the week in which the claimant ceases to satisfy any other requirement as to the allowance or
2. the expiry of eight weeks beginning with the Sunday following the death (or the date of death if the death occurred on a Sunday) whichever occurs first.  Regulatory Reform (Carer’s Allowance) Order 2002, art 3; 2 SS CB Act 92, s 70(1A)

https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2002/1457



     However, there are separate regulations providing that if a person in receipt of PIP is admitted into hospital, then PIP can only be paid for the first 28 days of the hospital stay. Once the PIP qualifying benefit ceases, then so will any CA payments.

      I can only think that the DWP may perhaps be checking that, at the date of your husband's passing, PIP was correctly in payment    
 

          

BooJewels

Thanks for the clarification @Alice_Holt - I'd concur, I think the place of death is a red herring.  I think the PIP was correctly being paid - his Palliative Care nurse had just submitted the DS1500, so the PIP had increased a little for a few weeks and whilst he'd had a few short stays in hospital, combined, they were only something like 17 days in total.

I think the PIP may have been overpaid slightly and said as much in my letter to them, as after submission of the DS1500, it went from 4 weekly in arrears to weekly in advance and I think that makes it paid up until about 8 or 9 days after he passed.  So I'll no doubt have to pay that extra back.  

Brie

Alice_Holt said:

BooJewels said:

...she was working at home, using the internet to access the DWP system and it was unworkably slow.  

I have no idea how the place of death could be a criteria to ascertain whether you qualify for the additional CA - the myriad scenarios that might occur when someone is approaching the end of their life would make it impossible to make a decision based on that alone.  

         Quite. It would be totally illogical

          And like calcotti I have never come across such a home / hospital distinction.  I suspect the person you spoke to did not fully understand CA and was confusing 2 things.

         The Disability Rights Handbook (DRH) states  "CA can continue for up to eight weeks following the death of the person you cared for. Throughout those 8 weeks you must continue to meet all the CA qualifying conditions not related to caring..."   (These would include the CA earnings limit conditions).
       
 Nowhere in DRH is there any mention of this alleged home / hospital distinction.

      Nor in the DWP Decision Makers Guide, which states - 
 "...entitlement to CA can continue for up to 8 weeks after the death of the disabled person being cared for, provided that all the other conditions are satisfied. 

          

Re the home/hospital distinction....I have encountered this in that when the individual being cared for goes into hospital or into a care home or hospice the person receiving CA is no longer considered to be caring for the individual.  CA continues for only a specified period (maybe 4 weeks, or 8?).  So if the OP's other half was in the hospital for 2 weeks before death then the 8 week period would start from admission to hospital rather than from the Sunday relevant to the date of death.  That would be one of the other conditions that would need to be considered.

calcotti

Brie said: I have encountered this in that when the individual being cared for goes into hospital or into a care home or hospice the person receiving CA is no longer considered to be caring for the individual.  CA continues for only a specified period (maybe 4 weeks, or 8?).  

If someone goes into hospital or care home their PIP stops after 28 days. If someone claims CA for looking after them CA is payable for the same period, it stops at the same time as the PIP. As far as I am aware, provided the CA is still payable at time of death the 8 week run on applies and I have not heard of time in hospital being deducted from that (but happy to be corrected).

BooJewels

Good morning.  I wanted to update this thread with the latest outcome.

As per the lady at DWP working at home, I was paid three weeks 'catch up' CA last Friday and on Monday had a normal weekly payment - I'm expecting three more Monday payments to make up the 8 weeks.  I was already paid 1 additional week after he died, before the information got through. 

Yesterday I got the letter explaining their decision.  Typically of DWP letters, it makes a simple enough arrangement sound very complicated.  It tells me that they've 'looked at the facts and evidence used to make our decision' and as a result, have changed their decision about my entitlement to CA and I won't be entitled to it after 6/9/2021.  Then goes on to tell me that my payments will start on 9/8/2021.  Why not just say, your entitlement to CA will stop on x date, because the person you cared for died on y date.  As you are entitled to an additional 8 weeks, they will be paid as follows:.

So I'm non-the-wiser about why it was stopped in the first instance and then easily re-instated.  My husband had 4 days in hospital a month or more earlier, but was at home for the period until he died - so that's not it.  Maybe it's one of the ways the Government can save money; stop it when they hear of a death and wait and see if the recipient of CA shouts up about the additional 8 weeks.  

There's still his PIP and ESA to sort out, but I've written with all the information, so the ball is in their court - I think we might have been slightly overpaid, which they'll no doubt retrieve in due course.

calcotti

Thanks for updating. Glad it's sorted. As you say, not sure we've learnt much about the process though!

BooJewels

Indeed @calcotti - if anything, I've just caused confusion.  Sorry about that!

calcotti

BooJewels said:..if anything, I've just caused confusion. ..

That would be the DWP, not you.

Robbie64

How very complicated and how very typical DWP (and I say that as someone who used to work for them). Take a simple rule and make it as complicated as possible. Plus apply it at the worst time possible when the person having to make the phone call to Carers Allowance Unit is at his or her most vulnerable and with many other things to do.

BooJewels

I'd concur, they have made something that should have been straightforward, more complicated than it needed to be. 

But in all fairness, the lady I did speak to was incredibly lovely and sensitive and did everything that she said she would.  She was one of the better ones I've spoken to - some people who you'd think would be more understanding just haven't been.  A GP I saw yesterday said "apart from feeling a bit sad about your husband's death, could anything else possibly be causing you stress".  No, only this conversation!