UC, Carers Allowance And AET

ukguyxukx

Hi id just like some advice please as I seem unable to find the answer anywhere. We recently received a migration notice to switch to UC from Tax Credits. I understand about that as there is a lot of advice and information everywhere. What I can't find the answer to is that I am a full time carer for our son who is on higher rate DLA. My partner earns between £1200-1300 gross pay per month. We also have another child and she would be considered as having parent care responsibilities as well as having to look after our disabled son for a few hours, even though she isnt on carers allowance. So her salary is slightly short of the 30 hours expected for parent having lead care responsibilities for a 3-12 year old. We'd also be slightly short of the planned AET for couples that is expected to start soon. So what would happen? Could we be potentially sanctioned? Or because I'm receiving carers allowance is she counted as having a single person AET as I've read elsewhere? It's very confusing. Thank you

Spoonie_Turtle

ukguyxukx said:

… What I can't find the answer to is that I am a full time carer for our son who is on higher rate DLA. My partner earns between £1200-1300 gross pay per month.
We also have another child and she would be considered as having parent care responsibilities as well as having to look after our disabled son for a few hours, even though she isnt on carers allowance. So her salary is slightly short of the 30 hours expected for parent having lead care responsibilities for a 3-12 year old.
We'd also be slightly short of the planned AET for couples that is expected to start soon. So what would happen? Could we be potentially sanctioned? Or because I'm receiving carers allowance is she counted as having a single person AET as I've read elsewhere? It's very confusing. Thank you

I don't know the answer to your question but can reassure you there won't be sanctions. Sanctions are only for failing to do something without good reason, such as failing to attend an appointment without a good reason, or giving up work just because of not wanting to do it any more, that kind of thing.

The worst that might happen is her having to attend some appointments and look for more work.  But as I say, I don't know what the situation will actually be.  Just that you don't have to worry about being sanctioned for it.

ukguyxukx

Spoonie_Turtle said:

ukguyxukx said:

… What I can't find the answer to is that I am a full time carer for our son who is on higher rate DLA. My partner earns between £1200-1300 gross pay per month.
We also have another child and she would be considered as having parent care responsibilities as well as having to look after our disabled son for a few hours, even though she isnt on carers allowance. So her salary is slightly short of the 30 hours expected for parent having lead care responsibilities for a 3-12 year old.
We'd also be slightly short of the planned AET for couples that is expected to start soon. So what would happen? Could we be potentially sanctioned? Or because I'm receiving carers allowance is she counted as having a single person AET as I've read elsewhere? It's very confusing. Thank you

I don't know the answer to your question but can reassure you there won't be sanctions. Sanctions are only for failing to do something without good reason, such as failing to attend an appointment without a good reason, or giving up work just because of not wanting to do it any more, that kind of thing.

The worst that might happen is her having to attend some appointments and look for more work.  But as I say, I don't know what the situation will actually be.  Just that you don't have to worry about being sanctioned for it.

Thanks for taking the time to reply. If the AET wasn't reduced and she was short by a £100 of the purposed new target of £1400 for couples from April, what sort of extra work could they expect her to look for? What would they do in your experience of UC in a situation like that? If I'm honest work coupled with the extra caring responsibilities she has with our disabled son, I don't see how they can expect anymore from her.

Spoonie_Turtle

I'm sorry, I truly don't know.

Hopefully others who know and who have more relevant experience with UC will be able to help (I'm unable to work so my experience of UC is no help to anyone in a different situation).

Yamor

The AET for a single person can apply to a member of a couple, although only their own earnings will be considered, not the couple's joint earnings.
The current threshold for a single person is £677/month. This is supposed to be going up soon to £812/month. From April 2024 it will go up again to £892/month.
As such, your partner should easily fall within the light touch regime.
However, from January 2024, even those in the light touch regime will be called in for meetings with a work coach, and it will therefore be beneficial for her to be placed in the "working enough" regime, which depends on her "expected hours".
Although the starting point for her expected hours is 30 hours per week, this can be reduced where someone has caring responsibilities for a disabled person (even if someone else is getting Carer's Allowance and/or the Carer Element for that disable person). You will have to request this manually once you have made your claim.

ukguyxukx

Yamor said:

The AET for a single person can apply to a member of a couple, although only their own earnings will be considered, not the couple's joint earnings.
The current threshold for a single person is £677/month. This is supposed to be going up soon to £812/month. From April 2024 it will go up again to £892/month.
As such, your partner should easily fall within the light touch regime.
However, from January 2024, even those in the light touch regime will be called in for meetings with a work coach, and it will therefore be beneficial for her to be placed in the "working enough" regime, which depends on her "expected hours".
Although the starting point for her expected hours is 30 hours per week, this can be reduced where someone has caring responsibilities for a disabled person (even if someone else is getting Carer's Allowance and/or the Carer Element for that disable person). You will have to request this manually once you have made your claim.

Honestly thank you so much for taking the time to reply. Yes that makes sense and I did read it somewhere that a reduction in expected hours can be applied if there is reason (e.g. cares for a disabled person) but it has to be requested. Thank you for clearing it up, this information isn't clear anywhere.