Carers allowance migration to Social Security Scotland

Jay_1987

Hi there,

I got my first payment from Social Security Scotland on Friday after it migrated from DWP. The payment was a week later than when I was meant to get my payment from DWP but I still only got 4 weeks worth of money. It does advise on the letter that I would get 4 weeks of money even though i had 5 weeks between payments. I am confused? Is it worth phoning and asking why I am missing a week?

Newcad

In Scotland Carers Allowance is being changed to the "Carers Support Payment".
https://www.mygov.scot/carers-allowance-changes-in-scotland

You are not actually 'missing a week' here's why:

The money that you were paid by Carers Allowance was paid 3 weeks in arrears and one week in advance.
However Carers Support Payment pays all 4 weeks in arrears.

That means that when you moved to the Carers Support Payment the first week had already been paid by Carers Allowance, so the first payment of Carers Support Payment was 4 weeks after that.
1 week already paid by CA + a new 4 weeks waiting to be paid by CSP = 5 weeks wait.

From now on you will get a Carers Support Payment every 4 weeks.

Quote from : https://www.mygov.scot/carers-allowance-changes-in-scotland/payments

If you’re paid Carer’s Allowance every 4 weeks

Your first Carer Support Payment will be 5 weeks after your last payment from the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP). But you will not lose out on any money. You’ll still be paid for every week you provide care.

This is because DWP and Social Security Scotland pay in slightly different ways:

• DWP pays you for the 3 previous weeks, plus 1 week in advance
• Social Security Scotland will pay you for the previous 4 weeks

There’ll be 5 weeks between your last DWP payment and your first Social Security Scotland payment. Because DWP pays you for the previous 3 weeks and 1 week in advance, they’ll have already paid you for the first of those 5 weeks. And the first payment you get from Social Security Scotland will cover the last 4 weeks of those 5 weeks.

After this first payment from Social Security Scotland, you’ll be paid every 4 weeks.

If you’re concerned about waiting an extra week for your first payment, you can ask to be paid Carer Support Payment every week instead. This means there’ll be no gap in your payments. Social Security Scotland will send you a letter saying how you can ask to be paid weekly.

If you ask to get Carer Support Payment every week, you will not be able to change back to getting paid every 4 weeks.

Largs

You would think they would wait until after the Christmas period to do this.