Carer's Allowance and Marriage Allowance - Can They Be Claimed Together?

BopBopWeed

I have just completed my six monthly Carer's Allowance form (as I'm self-employed my income is monitored every six months) and one of the questions was whether myself or my partner claims Marriage Allowance, and if so what was my Tax Code.  I care for my husband and am currently earning under the £132 a week.  I claimed Marriage Allowance last year because my income was below the £11500 limit.  

I'm waiting for a decision as to whether my CA will be continued (it was stopped on 3 July).  We are on a very low income.  I'm worried that the Marriage Allowance will mean that I'll be disallowed my CA and that I'll have to pay some of it back for the past 6 months, and will ahve a reduced amount for the coming six months.  

I've tried googling whether its possible to claim both Carer's Allowance and Marriage Allowance but there's out there - even on the Government Website. I'm hoping that my CA will not be affected by the MA?

Robbie64

Carer's Allowance is taxable income so you can run the risk of underpaying tax if your remaining tax alloance doesn't cover your income from both your earnings and Carer's Allowance. There's no reason I can see why you still can't transfer part of your tax allowance to your husband so long as you leave enough of a tax allowance for yourself to cover both your earnings and Carer's Allowance.

If you are unsure about whether you can continue to claim Marriage Allowance, the advice on gov.uk is to phone up and seek clarification https://www.gov.uk/marriage-allowance/if-your-circumstances-change

Dazed_and_C0nfused

You cannot "claim" Marriage Allowance.

Do you mean you applied for it and gave part of your Personal Allowance to your husband or did he apply?

Why do you think it might impact your Carers Allowance?

If you are self employed do you even have a tax code?

sheramber

If you claimed marriage allowance that means you gave some of your personal tax allowance to your husband.
If your husband transferred some of his personal allowance to you then it was him who claimed marriage allowance. 

Which is it?

BopBopWeed

Robbie64 said:

Carer's Allowance is taxable income so you can run the risk of underpaying tax if your remaining tax alloance doesn't cover your income from both your earnings and Carer's Allowance. There's no reason I can see why you still can't transfer part of your tax allowance to your husband so long as you leave enough of a tax allowance for yourself to cover both your earnings and Carer's Allowance.

If you are unsure about whether you can continue to claim Marriage Allowance, the advice on gov.uk is to phone up and seek clarification

Thank you - my earnings are so low at the moment that I'm well below £11500, so I'm hoping it will be OK.  I'm still waiting for my claim for the next six months to be processed - I'll post it up so if anyone else wonders whether its possible to claim Carer's Allowance and transfer tax allowance to a spouse, then it will hopefully come up.  

BopBopWeed

Thank you for your replies - I transferred tax allowance to my husband (he's 77 and pays tax on his two pensions) - yes I have a tax code, they asked for it on my Carer's Allowance Claim Form - it's 1131N ?  

My earnings are so low at the moment that I'm well below £11500, so I'm hoping it will be OK.  I'm still waiting for my claim for the next six months to be processed - I'll post it up so if anyone else wonders whether its possible to claim Carer's Allowance and transfer tax allowance to a spouse, then it will hopefully come up.   Hopefully I will know soon - it's been four weeks I think it can take 8-12 weeks to process a claim...........

BopBopWeed

I will post up the result of my claim as soon as I know in case anyone else wonders if it's possible to transfer marriage allowance and claim Carers Allowance. 

I transferred some allowance to my husband - my Tax Code was 1275 and now has reduced to 1131N.  

I wondered whether transferring some allowance would disallow my Carer's Allowance, though can't see how as it means my personal allowance is less.  It's jsut that for someone like me it's all a bit of a puzzle, so was worried my claim would be disallowed and my claims for Jan-June would have to pay some back.

Will update soon all being well. 

Robbie64

I still don't think it will affect any claim to Carer's Allowance but as you posted, it will be interesting to find out how if it does.

BopBopWeed

UPDATE: Just to say I have now had a decision and as my earnings are well below the weekly threshold, I am entitled to Carer's Allowance even though I also gave Marriage Allowance to my husband, so that is good news for me, I was worried that giving my husband Marriage Allowance would affect my Carer's Allowance claim, but it hasn't affecteed at all - so it is possible to have Carer's Allowance and Marriage Allowance.