Carers Allowance and Pension Credit

Blueday · 21 March 2019 at 9:46PM

I'd welcome advice on the following....

Elderly lady has high care needs that are currently self funded.

Her income comes from SP, small personal pension, higher rate AA and savings.

Nobody currently claims CA for her.

Daughter has drastically reduced working hours to provide some of this care (there are other paid carers).

Daughter would be eligible for CA as she fits the criteria

But

The lady has high housing costs over £600 a month. She owns a property within an older peoples care village so pays a substantial sum for the leasehold and management costs. She also pays CT (-25%).

She is currently not eligible for any help with these housing costs as her saving are too high for PC.

However within a year or two, once her savings drop, she would be entitled to a small amount of guaranteed PC and full HB providing no one is claiming CA for her.

So my question is can the daughter claim CA now but then stop the claim in a few months in order for the lady to claim PC and HB which would be much more generous, or would that cause alarm bells and look like manipulation of the system?

Thanks

calcotti · 21 March 2019 at 11:19PM

There is no savings limit for Pension Credit. Savings below £10,000 are ignored. Above £10,000 there is a deduction of £1 for each £500 or part thereof. To be clear do you mean that this tariff income is such that it results in no Pension Credit entitlement.

If daughter claims CA she can choose to end the claim. She can say that she is no longer able to provide 35 hours of care and therefore no longer qualifies. Obviously daughter’s earnings need to be below the earnings threshold to be able to claim CA.

In your penultimate paragraph you refer to a year or two. In the final paragraph you refer to a few months. A Carer’s Allowance claim usually takes a few months to process anyway.

Blueday · 21 March 2019 at 11:51PM

Thank-you for that Calcotti.

Yes it is the extra tariff income on savings that pushes the total income over the threshold for PC. Regarding the time scale, it's hard to gauge as the cost of the paid care seems to vary so much dependent on the ladies fluctuating health but yes it could be less than a year so probably not worth making the claim at all.

Thanks again

calcotti · 21 March 2019 at 11:55PM

Have you checked what of the leasehold/management charges could be covered by Housing Benefit. Much of the charge may be excluded, possibly all of it.

Blueday · 22 March 2019 at 12:21AM

Yes I'm fairly sure most of it is covered with just things like utilities deducted as the management company send invoices that give a breakdown into the applicable and non applicable amount for HB

All this may be irrelevant as the lady is in her 90s but I'd rather plan ahead to ensure that her final years are as stress free as possible.

calcotti · 22 March 2019 at 12:25AM

Sounds like you’ve thought it through quite carefully. Comes down to how much daughter would benefit from the CA for a limited period and how much the HB would slow down the erosion of mother’s savings.

[Deleted User] · 22 March 2019 at 12:28AM

I'd go for the CA even if only for a short period.

Carers Allowance and Pension Credit

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