Carers allowance

lilac_dawn

Can someone please help with a few questions? I am looking at new style JSA (not means tested) and Carers allowance. I see that for carers you need to care for someone who is in receipt of a benefit for at least 35 hours a week and can earn up to £196 per week - over this and the allowance stops. For JSA, I see you can work up to 16 hours, but I think that is at minimum wage - is that correct? - so there should be a limit of earnings? For carers, how do you log the care hours at the DWP? Or don't you? I ask all of this as I can't work full time due to caring duties so don't want to commit to job hunting full-time for JSA , I would prefer to apply for Carers allowance, if possible but how does that work? Do you have to turn up at the DWP for carers? I think NI contibutions are covered by both. Thanks for any help. 

Spoonie_Turtle

For Carers Allowance there's no logging of hours.

You have to be able to meet the jobsearch conditions of JSA to claim that (as well as having a full NI record for the relevant tax years).  I don't know how strict they are compared with UC.

Earnings on JSA, they allow you to keep £5 of what you earn and deduct the rest from your JSA.  So in reality if you earned £97.05 or more in a week you'd not get any JSA.

You won't be able to be paid both benefits, you'll get whichever one is worth more.

Is UC not an option?  You'd be entitled to more and wouldn't *have* to look for work, but you could also earn more and still qualify for help.

lilac_dawn

Thanks - that's really helpful. No - I don't qualify for UC. I'd prefer Carers as I will then be able to continue what I do now. I think JSA will mean I won't be able to do that, or rather I am going to end up doing less, or giving up evenings.

Robbie64

Carer's Allowance is paid at a lower weekly rate than JSA (if over 25), £83.30 v £92.05 (if under 25, JSA is £72.90) but has no requirements to look for work, or even attend the JobCentre. It also has a more generous earnings limit though you have to work less than 16 hours per week at NMW if you are 21 or over to avoid hitting the earnings threshold and losing all of your CA.

You don't have to log the hours you spend caring to get CA, it's sufficient to state that you care for at least 35 hours a week. Note though that if the person you are caring for is in receipt of a means tested benefit and lives alone, he or she may be getting additional money (a severe disability premium paid with the means tested benefit) which ceases when someone claims Carer's Allowance. The person should be contacted by the DWP to inform them that you have claimed CA if this is the case.