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Carers allowance earnings

savermseman
savermseman Posts: 31 Forumite
Fourth Anniversary 10 Posts
edited 13 September 2023 at 7:08PM in Benefits & tax credits
My wife has been claiming carers allowance, however last year she accidentally earned £133 per week which is £1 per week over the weekly allowance .when she realised, she took some unpaid hours off work, before the end of the financial year, which averaged out as £131 per week...This however is not good enough for DWP, and she has been ordered to repay nearly £4000 including a £50 fine...surely this can't be fair..She earned less than she allowed during financial year 
So now, we gotta pay this back, and cut 1 hour per week from her 14 hour job, which will mean losing over  £500 worth of wages , to keep it under the new £139 per week allowance 
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Comments

  • nannytone_2
    nannytone_2 Posts: 12,967 Forumite
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    edited 13 September 2023 at 7:48PM
    Eligibility for carers allowance Is based on weekly income, and not yearly . The onus is on the claimant to ensure they are entitled to the benefit that they are claiming
  • sheramber
    sheramber Posts: 20,381 Forumite
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    My wife has been claiming carers allowance, however last year she accidentally earned £133 per week which is £1 per week over the weekly allowance .when she realised, she took some unpaid hours off work, before the end of the financial year, which averaged out as £131 per week...This however is not good enough for DWP, and she has been ordered to repay nearly £4000 including a £50 fine...surely this can't be fair..She earned less than she allowed during financial year 
    So now, we gotta pay this back, and cut 1 hour per week from her 14 hour job, which will mean losing over  £500 worth of wages , to keep it under the new £139 per week allowance 
    If you want to claim carers allowance you need to restrict the income to no more than £139 per week. You are always going to be limited to the relevant figure for each year.  

    That is the amount the Government decided should apply.

    If you consider that amount too low then make your views known to your MP.
  • huckster
    huckster Posts: 4,993 Forumite
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    edited 13 September 2023 at 8:20PM
    Follow the mandatory reconsideration process.

    Challenge a benefit decision (mandatory reconsideration): Eligibility - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

    You could contact Carers UK for advice about this.

    https://www.carersuk.org/

    It appears that if the earnings threshold is exceeded by £1 that entitlement is lost and that this is one of the main reasons for overpayments being calculated.  If you had contacted Carers Allowance at the time of these earnings, you could have asked a Decision Maker to consider average earnings over a period, but I don't think Carers Allowance would allow a retrospective look back, when they were not contacted at the time.

    You might as well submit a mandatory reconsideration and try to argue why you did not advise Carers Allowance at the time of the earnings e.g. provide any good reasons for failing to report the earnings threshold breach.




    The comments I post are personal opinion. Always refer to official information sources before relying on internet forums. If you have a problem with any organisation, enter into their official complaints process at the earliest opportunity, as sometimes complaints have to be started within a certain time frame.
  • Oh dear.

    So now, we gotta pay this back, and cut 1 hour per week from her 14 hour job, which will mean losing over  £500 worth of wages , to keep it under the new £139 per week allowance 
    This might not be the only option, pension contributions can lower the amount for CA purposes - just a couple of pounds would bring it under the threshold.  But unless she already makes pension contributions I don't know how she'd go about starting that. 
  • So she must earn under £132 per week = (£6864) per year   ( last year )
    She actually earned £133 per week , minus some unpaid time off   ( £6812 ) earned for year....
    She actually earned less than allowance over the year...but this not allowed in this crazy system.
    How on earth is this fair ?
  • Alice_Holt
    Alice_Holt Posts: 6,091 Forumite
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    edited 14 September 2023 at 9:54AM
    As has been noted above the earnings limit is applied weekly not annually. So any week where earnings exceed the earnings limit (even by 1p), entitlement to CA is lost.

    There are (limited) ways to counter this cliff edge - I'd suggest increasing / starting pension contributions  (presumably she has access to an auto-enrolment scheme). Per Spoonie's post.
    https://www.gov.uk/carers-allowance/eligibility

    If you are claiming a benefit such as CA, then you really do need to be aware of the conditions attached to it. Otherwise this can easily cause you problems and potential overpayments.
    Was she aware of the £132 earnings limit when starting the job / claiming CA?
    Did the employer pay her according to the agreed contract?  If the £1 excess results from employer payroll error, then a tribunal may decide this does not constitute 'earnings' and is instead a voluntary payment.

    Does she have any expenses (uniform?) related to work (see link above) ?

    It's worth appealing and going to tribunal (as advised by huckster above), if none of the above apply - you could try your averaging argument, and see how you get on. 
    Alice Holt Forest situated some 4 miles south of Farnham forms the most northerly gateway to the South Downs National Park.
  • Sounds like it is not allowed to average out the historic weekly earnings, but maybe you can find some expenses that total £100+ for that year, and then you might be allowed to average them out to £2 per week.   
  • Would it be of any use to ask for a mandatory reconsideration, considering my wife has earned £133 per week which is £1 per week over the allowance, but still earned only £131 per week average over the whole year, or will we be wasting our time, as rules are rules..She has worked the same amount of hours 14 hours per week for 8 years, and it is purely the annual payment rise from work which has increased by slightly more than the allowance by DWP which is the reason for the overspend, not the fact she is trying to beat the system by earning more than she is entitled too.
  • sheramber
    sheramber Posts: 20,381 Forumite
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    From what I have read it can only be averaged if your wages vary from week to week, not if you withgo wages to reduce your annual income. 

  • Would it be of any use to ask for a mandatory reconsideration, considering my wife has earned £133 per week which is £1 per week over the allowance, but still earned only £131 per week average over the whole year, or will we be wasting our time, as rules are rules..She has worked the same amount of hours 14 hours per week for 8 years, and it is purely the annual payment rise from work which has increased by slightly more than the allowance by DWP which is the reason for the overspend, not the fact she is trying to beat the system by earning more than she is entitled too.
    You are not likely to get it, as others have said it's calculated weekly, and if you go over one week in the month, then you lose the whole month. It isn't fair. If she was earning over every week then she technically isn't entitled to it. 
    You can make pension contributions to bring it down, but they only take 50% into account so you need to pay in double what you are over. 
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