This topic was closed on 03/07/19. If you have a problem which is similar to the issues raised in this topic, then please start a new thread and you will get help and support there. If you would like to post up some information which is relevant to this particular topic then please flag the issue up to the site team and the thread will be reopened. - Consumer Action Group

This topic was closed on 03/07/19. If you have a problem which is similar to the issues raised in this topic, then please start a new thread and you will get help and support there. If you would like to post up some information which is relevant to this particular topic then please flag the issue up to the site team and the thread will be reopened. - Consumer Action Group

Right, my wife currently on maternith leave and will go back to her 24 hours/week rota in a few weeks, ouside of work she cares for me (I have a spinal problem, weak discs etc, going in for my 3rd operation at some point this year which "might" make me more mobile). I am in receipt of middle level care and higher mobility dla, mh wife does not receive carers credit as she earns too much. We have 4 chidren, 1 in seconday school, 1 in primary and 2 young ones. She is considering giving up work to care for me, I used to look after the kids while she was at work but my condition has worsened to the point where I can not manage that well. What sort of penalty would sbe receive if she was to voluntarily give up work and apply for income support? Many thanks.

Very bad advice. Step 1, ignore everything they send you. Step 2, see step 1.

Any more news?

getting there.

Any chance of a link to the news story. I've tried using the "this is plymouth" site and it's had a makeover by a 4 year old and i can't find a thing! edit, i type too slowly!

I know, hoping that the carers premium might be an extra variable in the equation though. Instead of being £8-£9 a week down (maternity allowance 90%, etc), we're currently £63 a week down (no carers allowance), the budget is going to need some fine tuning!

Oh hell yeah, we'll need to update the working tax credit people, which in turn will knock on to other stuff we get. Good job everything is so straight forwards!

Just to update this, she's just started her maternity leave, the maternity allowance is coming through @ £85.40/week. BUT the carers allowance has effectively stopped due to the "overlapping benefit" rule, so we contacted the DWP to change over to the carers premium and it turns out we need to make an Income Support claim! Haven't dealt with this many separate departments in years!

Ahh, right, thanks. Looks like we won't be too much worse off while she's off work then. (wish they'd take the number of kids into account in a different way, my eldest lives here 4 days a week, but spends 4 nights with my ex, meaning she doesn't exist in this family on "official" paperwork, makes budgeting fun!)

Many thanks for the quick relies. Been doing some more reading (link follows link follows link with this stuff!) and it looks like she'll lose the Carers Allowance but might be entitled to a Carer Premium....? They couldn't make it straight forward could they!

Hopefully somebody here can help me, i'm somewhat confused by the paperwork/info regarding maternity payments. Our current situation is that my wife works 16 hrs a week at a takeaway @ minimum wage. I am disabled and in receipt of medium level DLA. We have one child together (6 years old). We get HB, CTB (currently paying off £1500 from when i didn't fill out the benefit paperwork correctly a few years ago), WTC, CTC, DLA & my wife gets carers allowance (for putting up with me!) We've looked at the info for when she goes on maternity leave, but we're not sure how it works out. From what i can understand she won't get maternity pay from her employer as she is under the threshold for employers payments (16 hrs @ min wage seems to be about £3/week under the threshold), so we've mention of getting a form SMP1 signed by her employer, but in the pamphlet we have it says her average wage should be around £30, whereas she earns just under £100. If she gets whatever this other benefit is, how does it effect the WTC & CTC amounts we recieve? Many thanks. ps, quite annoying that they've dropped some of the maternity grant stuff, we didn't know the £500 maternity & £200 healthy eating things existed last time around, this time around they've been stopped! argh!

The lack of good news is disheartening

Don't want to sound harsh here, but have you read any of the other responses to this thread? Tell the RK to ignore EVERYTHING they send, they have not "issued a FINE", they have "posted an invoice", an invoice that doesn't need to be paid as the contract the invoice is based on is slight dodgy to put it mildly.