Carers allowance allowable expenses

poppy12345

Does she currently live alone or classed as living alone? If so then you need to check exactly what benefits she's claiming. If she's claiming pension credit which includes the Severe disability premium then she will lose this if you claim either Carers Allowance or carers element.

Alice_Holt

Cheryl2022 said:

It's my elderly grandma, she qualifies higher rate attendance allowance so if it's best that I don't claim carers allowance because she will lose some of her benefits....

        If your grandma is receiving the severe disability premium on her Pension Credit (PC), she will lose that c £67 pw if you claim CA.

        https://www.disabilityrightsuk.org/pension-credit-additional-amount-severe-disability

    So, she will lose £67 a week, and your CA payments will be deducted in full from your UC claim.


   If she is getting the SDP increase to her PCI'd be inclined to:
 - ring CA and terminate your CA claim,
 - notify UC of your caring responsibilities and get the carer's element paid on your joint UC claim.

Cheryl2022

She does live alone yes. That's what I'm concerned about if I can claim carers element from universal credit and still claim my childcare whilst I look after her I'll do that as I thought the carers element of universal credit didn't affect my grandmas benefits? 

It's all incredibly confusing I need to make sure I do the right thing

Alice_Holt

Cheryl2022 said:

She does live alone yes. That's what I'm concerned about if I can claim carers element from universal credit and still claim my childcare whilst I look after her I'll do that as I thought the carers element of universal credit didn't affect my grandmas benefits? 

It's all incredibly confusing I need to make sure I do the right thing

      You do, and it is confusing.


  
      Claiming CA will stop her receiving any SDP on her PC (if she claims PC).

Look at the link I provided, it states 

• no one gets carer's allowance for looking after you.
  
  
  Edited to remove incorrect information. See poppy's and calcotti's posts re carers element of UC and SDP.
  
  
  

Alice_Holt

Remember you are not any better off by claiming CA, as it will be deducted from your UC in full.

Cheryl2022

Okay that's great thank you I'll contact UC about the carers element tomorrow

poppy12345

Alice_Holt said:

Cheryl2022 said:

She does live alone yes. That's what I'm concerned about if I can claim carers element from universal credit and still claim my childcare whilst I look after her I'll do that as I thought the carers element of universal credit didn't affect my grandmas benefits? 

It's all incredibly confusing I need to make sure I do the right thing

      You do




      The carers element of UC won't affect your grandmas benefit.

      However, you claiming CA will stop her receiving any SDP on her PC (if she claims PC).

Look at the link I provided, it states 

• no one gets carer's allowance for looking after you.

That's not correct. The SDP is affected by both the Carers allowance and carers element of UC. The link you posted is very misleading.

https://www.turn2us.org.uk/Benefit-guides/Severe-Disability-Premium/Can-I-get-a-Severe-Disability-Premium

If you are single:

No one must be getting Carer’s Allowance or Carer’s Element of Universal Credit for looking after you,

https://www.gov.uk/disability-premiums/eligibility

You cannot get the severe disability premium if someone is getting Carer’s Allowance or the carers element of Universal Credit for looking after you.

If she claims the SDP then it may have already stopped because it's been 5 weeks since you claimed CA.

Cheryl2022

Oh no i didn't know that it would stop her SDP. I put in for carers allowance since I have been caring for her since January so that will cause her some problems if it gets backdated and they backdate the termination of her SDP, its so unfortunate that you have to juggle the care you can provide against finances, it feels like you get given something with one hand and taken away with the other I am so worried they are going to send her a huge bill for overpayment now as she has been getting the help towards her housing costs since she starting receiving attendance allowance.

By the sounds of it, i dont no if I will be able to afford to care for her at all if both the carers allowance and carers element will mean she loses £69 per week. 

poppy12345

Unfortunately, it's the criteria for claiming the SDP. The AA wouldn't have entitled her to full housing benefit, it would have been the Pension Credit. Pension credit will also mean she's entitled to full council tax reduction and other various things too.

https://www.independentage.org/get-advice/money/benefits/pension-credit

Pension credit will send a letter to her saying that someone's claimed CA or carers element for looking after her and her SDP will end.

calcotti

Alice_Holt said:

   If she is getting the SDP increase to her PCI'd be inclined to:
 - ring CA and terminate your CA claim,
 - notify UC of your caring responsibilities and get the carer's element paid on your joint UC claim.

Claiming carer element of UC will also end the SDP.

I’m rather shocked that the DisabilityRights page you linked to doesn’t say this.