carers allowance & state pension

HarryC46

daughter is registered disabled with wife as carer, wife receives carers allowance for daughter,
wife is due to start receiving her state pension in February, pension office have wrote to say carers allowance will stop once she received state pension, this will effect daughter not wife, pension office say this is the rules, surely there must be some way for wife to receive both payments? all help and advice appreciated.
apologies if I have the wrong category here

jem16

The state pension and carer’s allowance are what is called overlapping benefits so no I’m afraid there is no way to have both. 

Marcon

jem16 said:

The state pension and carer’s allowance are what is called overlapping benefits so no I’m afraid there is no way to have both. 

I'm not sure that's quite right. See https://www.carersuk.org/help-and-advice/financial-support/carers-allowance/carer-s-allowance-your-state-pension-plus-other-benefits/

LHW99

Also this, in Money Mail

https://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/pensions/article-12734651/Carer-state-pension-denied-carers-allowance-pension-credit.html

xylophone

https://www.ageuk.org.uk/globalassets/age-uk/documents/factsheets/fs55_carers_allowance_fcs.pdf

although if you receive a State Pension or certain other benefits, you may not receive any, or all, of the Carer’s Allowance. Instead, you may be awarded an ‘underlying entitlement’ (see section 7).

CA has a complicated relationship with other benefits and because of this, some carers miss out on their full entitlement. It is possible your CA claim can affect the benefits entitlement of the person you care for.

You cannot normally receive CA and another ‘earnings replacement’ benefit such as State Pension because of overlapping benefit rules. If the other benefit pays less than the weekly CA rate of £76.75, you are entitled to a top-up of CA to that amount.

If the other benefit pays more than £76.75 a week and you qualify for CA, you are awarded an ‘underlying entitlement’ to CA only. You are not paid any CA, but the underlying entitlement might help you to qualify for higher rates of means-tested benefits like Pension Credit, Housing Benefit, and Council Tax Reduction/Support.

These benefits can include an extra amount called a carer’s premium or addition. An underlying entitlement to CA can be worthwhile if you have a low income, because it may allow you to claim these benefits for the first time or get an increased amount. Many carers, especially over State Pension age, could be helped by the underlying entitlement rules. 

Albermarle

 this will effect daughter not wife,

Presumably your daughter receives her own benefits directly? These of course will be unaffected 

Carers allowance is there as a kind of compensation for the carer being unable to have a job, or only a part time one. It is not for the disabled person themselves. So the logic is that when the state pension is paid, the carers allowance no longer has to be. ( not saying it is fair or not, but that is the thinking behind it)

Plus of course a full state pension is normally significantly more than Carers allowance.

Anyway it looks like from the links and info posted above, that hopefully some more money should be available to top up the state pension via other routes.

toomuchinfo

My State Pension started in July and my Carers Allowance for caring for my disabled son ended. I knew this was the way things happened, although I’m still caring for my son.