Carers Allowance

welovebenidorm_2

I work from home 20 hours per week and am a full time carer for my husband who receives both components high rate PIP, I have been advised even if I wasn't working I am not eligible to claim carers allowance because we are married, any comments greatly appreciated

p00hsticks

Advised by whom ? I don't believe that's true. 

chrisw

You have been wrongly advised. There is nothing to stop a spouse claiming carers allowance.

Muttleythefrog

You've been incorrectly advised or there is some misunderstanding... spouse can claim. (Obviously there is a range of eligibility criteria including your earnings level but who the person is in relation to the cared for person is not an element of criteria).

(Who advised?)

Eligibility criteria here
https://www.gov.uk/carers-allowance/eligibility

Spoonie_Turtle

I wonder if perhaps whomever advised you got muddled with the council tax reduction for carers, in which case the relationship between carer and caree does matter. 
But for Carers Allowance as already said above, it doesn't.

welovebenidorm_2

I was advised by our local MP as I asked him to investigate for me, however I do earn over the threshold which I think is a little unfair as I don't work away from home but at home! thank you for your comments much appreciated I'm going to contact PIP direct when I retire

welovebenidorm_2

just read this on direct gov  it's very unfair
If your pension is £81.90 a week or more, you will not get a Carer’s Allowance payment.

Muttleythefrog

welovebenidorm_2 said:

I was advised by our local MP as I asked him to investigate for me, however I do earn over the threshold which I think is a little unfair as I don't work away from home but at home! thank you for your comments much appreciated I'm going to contact PIP direct when I retire

Surprised the MP or their research staff didn't just point you to the government website... it's not a complex or particularly personalised query it appears... and not sure how they could get the advice so wrong. Might be worth you feeding back to them, if they are still the MP, "the relationship between cared for and carer is irrelevant" because heaven forbid they go on to advise people and they lose thousands of pounds a year in support they really could need.

Regarding PIP obviously they only deal with PIP claims... don't seek advice about any other benefit from them or you could end up with a repeat of bad advice when perfectly good official sources give the information required. And any issues of unfairness about benefit rules... that is a matter to take to your MP as they're the lawmaker that represents you and sit in parliament where the law and benefit rules are made and changed.

Spoonie_Turtle

welovebenidorm_2 said:

just read this on direct gov  it's very unfair
If your pension is £81.90 a week or more, you will not get a Carer’s Allowance payment.

That's because they're both classed as income-replacement benefits, so they're 'overlapping' and you can't receive both. 
However being a carer does raise the threshold for potentially being entitled to Pension Credit because it adds a carers premium to the calculation (applicable if your wife will also be pension age). 
It increases any potential UC entitlement if your wife will be under pension age when you reach pension age.

welovebenidorm_2 said:

I was advised by our local MP as I asked him to investigate for me, however I do earn over the threshold which I think is a little unfair as I don't work away from home but at home! thank you for your comments much appreciated I'm going to contact PIP direct when I retire

What do you hope contacting PIP would do?  Chances are they wouldn't be able to do what you anticipate because they only deal with PIP claims.

Robbie64

Either your MP has got something mixed up or he or she has been looking up some very old rules. Until 1990 a married woman couldn't claim Invalid Care Allowance (which became Carer's Allowance around 2001) for caring for her husband (it had to be for someone outside of the home) but that rule was abolished following a test case in the European Court.