Sorry for daft question but is that she will lose SDP even if I don't claim Carers Allowance?

My Mother is 87 lives alone and struggles to manage on her own with worsening health problems all the time. She gets AA and a SDP amount included in her pension credit. I am going to become her carer and will claim UC as a full time carer 35 hours a week, probably more. I understand that in UC I will get the carer element of 156.45 included in my UC and will not have any work requirements under the claimant commitment. If I claim CA for looking after her she loses the SDP she gets in her pension credit. However if I do not claim CA will she keep the SDP or does she still lose it because I get the carer element in UC? I have looked around to try and find this out but cant find anything definitive, so could someone with more knowledge than I have help me out with this? Basically I would prefer not to claim CA and have her money reduced, she is my Mother and I dont want to take money from her for doing the right thing and caring for her. Thanks in advance

I have just completed my migration from DLA to PIP. My DLA was an indefinite award of HRM & MRC. My assessment went better than I expected to be fair, I asked the assessor the normal question re what she thought my chances were, she said she would support what I had put in my application. After a 5 week wait the letter arrived last Saturday. I was awarded standard rate mobility on an ongoing basis until June 2026. I received no award for daily care. On checking the letter closer I saw that they had awarded 8 points for daily care - so I should have got the standard rate!!! The letter even said you have been awarded 8 points for daily living and have been awarded (blank space) rate. On Monday morning I rang up, they agreed the letter contained an award of 8 points for daily living. I was told they would put an urgent call for the case manager to ring me and because of the situation would put a 48 hour time limit for the call back. 48 hours came and went and no call......... So I rang again and this time I was told that I should not have been told 48 hours, it was 24 hours to 5 days for a call back. I was less than impressed. The person said they would refer it for the case manager again to call me. It is now Friday afternoon and no call back received. To say I am angry is an understatement. Can anyone help with what I can do to move this along? I considered asking for a MR but to be honest I don't even know whether I have been awarded anything for daily living until this is sorted so a MR isn't really an option yet. All I want is to know where I stand am I going to get a daily living award or not and if not I can then begin the MR and appeal if required. I even asked to be put through from the call centre but obviously they can't/won't. Any ideas gratefully received, thanks in advance

Thanks everyone for the advice it is appreciated. Just to answer some of the questions posed, I am the only surviving relative now so the buck stops with me. I know I will qualify unless there was a massive turnaround in my finances which is unlikely. It is really just the worry of the DWP taking what is in the current account into account towards the cost as that is obviously money that is used for living expenses. We decided to go with a joint account to make things easier in the long term and because there is no property or anything else involved it made sense, also if my Mother became not able to make decisions etc, I would automatically be in a position to administer her bills etc without a lot of hassle getting power of attourney. Also we calculated that with both our incomes going into the account we qualified for the 5% interest every month. It doesn't amount to much but as Mr Tesco says "every little helps" It will only be a very basic thing whenever it comes and we have a half decent funeral director in the town that is renowned for not ripping people off with flowers etc andd there won't be any cars or extras just a basic cremation, that is all she wants and as there is no other family I suppose it is all that is necessary. Like I said it is just about the joint account, if there was around £1200 in it if it was the right time of the month, I can't afford for the DWP to suddenly say well you have to use that towards it and have nothing left to live on until next month. If the funeral director wanted payment up front I would be able to put it on a credit card, or at least part of it, so hopefully that wouldn't be a problem but I am pretty sure our FD is happy to help if they know you qualify for the funeral payment with just a small deposit.

I am hoping someone with some knowledge of help with funeral costs can help me out. My Mother and I have a joint bank current account, she has no savings and neither do I. Depending on the time of the month there can be up to £1000 or more in the account. I know already that when the time comes I qualify for a funeral payment as I get DLA as well as working tax credits, so that is not the issue. My Mother is 83 and not in good health so wants to have everything in order as most people do. We have been told that when the time comes the DWP will want to see a final bank statement as part of the process of qualifying for help, which is understandable. However as we have a joint account there will not be a final statement as it will just continue in my name only. So I am assuming they will accept just a current statement? The biggest worry is will they take whatever is in the account at that time to use towards the funeral costs? As it is a joint account not all the money in it belongs to her or me, so what happens? The bank said that any money in the account will become mine as that is how it works when one person dies and they have a joint account. So would they take that money and say it has to used to pay for the funeral? The money that is in the account is money for living costs, bills etc and not savings but if they use it, then how do I pay to live until the next time I get paid? It is all quite confusing as to what happens as I guess this is not a normal set up. Any advice greatly appreciated

Thanks for the advice, I realised that it would be a civil case as opposed to a criminal one but I had thought that technically it amounted to fraud, that this would be the route to go down. So I appreciate your advice on that and I will heed it if I have to complete the court papers. I used the bank charges interest calculator I used when I claimed my bank charges back several years ago for calculating the 8% (just ammended it) because of the low amounts of the overcharging it only came to £2.01, which seems a small amount by way of compensation on its own. After all they have deprived her of the use of that money during the last 3 years and £2 doesn't really seem to be a fair and reasonable amount but I take your point about having recovered her money and the 8%. Regarding costs, I always thought you could either charge an amount within reason for self litigation, or claim the costs of what it has cost you aside of the court fee, which is exempt as my Mother gets PC Guarantee. It has taken a lot of time to get all the details together, all the letters printed out, the postage (everything Recorded) etc. The main thing is getting them to give her the money back that in effect they have stolen out of her bank account, also holding them to account. These companies no matter what line of business they are in like to think they can just get away with doing as they please with no redress. The whole thing has caused my Mother a lot of upset and worry and they need to be made to see that, preferably without putting her further out of pocket.

I am about to embark on taking a Housing Association to court for what I believe is fraud. I could do with some general advice on whether fraud is the right way forward. Without putting too much into a public forum, the details are; In January my Mother suspected that her housing association were taking money in the form of overcharging. This amounted to her water rates which she pays directly by DD every month to the Association not the water company, they bill the Housing Association. During the course of the last 3 years they have taken money for periods of time that they were not entitled to, it is not a massive amount of money but that is not the point. Each year she receives an uprating letter for her rent, service charge and water rates detailing what each element is per week. Some years they write under seperate cover detailing the amounts they will take each month and on what date, other years they don't bother and just take the DD making adjustments as they see fit without notice. I believe that this on its own is a breach of the DD Guarantee but that isn't so much the issue. The amount they have taken each month is more than the amount they detailed the charge to be and amounts to £26 per year, like I said not a lot but still money they were not entitled to. We can prove how much they said they wanted and obviously can prove that they have taken more than that from my Mothers bank account. In the interim I have cancelled the DD and replaced it with a standing order to stop the overcharging. I have written asking for a refund and explanation, they ignored the letter. So I followed it up with a LBA and they have now responded. There "defence" is that they calculate the weekly water charges by using the previous years charge and adding a percentage based on the RPI each September. This means that sometimes they get it wrong. When they do they they do not seek to recover any undercharges from the tenant. Likewise if they charge too much they don't give the tenant a refund. They have not charged too much, they have just taken more than they charged, which isn't quite the same thing! I do not believe that this is lawfull, it does not detail any such thing in her tenancy agreement. They have also said that the reason they have been overcharging was to make my Mother one week in advance with her water rates as per the tenancy agreement. It states none of this in the tenancy agreement and in any case one week in advance does not amount to £26 a year! My Mother is also not the only tenant they have done this to, there are at least 6 tenants in the same place. 1 has had a refund, 1 is waiting for a cheque supposedly in the post and the others are still in the process. It is crystal clear that they have advised every year what the weekly charge is in writing. It is obviously also crystal clear they have debited more than that amount. I backed up my LBA with documented evidence to prove they have overcharged, yet there is no willingness to refund the money, instead trying to pass it off as acceptable. So I am writing again demanding a refund and giving them a further 14 days to refund, or we will take them to court. Would this be classed as fraud? Or can it be theft? I am 100% certain that they will lose if it goes to court but not entirely sure what the charge would be? So any advice would be appreciated on the way to go. Also can I claim costs for self litigation and compensation for my Mother beyond the 8% statutory interest the court can award. Any advice and guidance appreciated. Thanks in advance

Just a quick update.......... WTC etc all paid on time as promised by HMRC. Still no sign of self employed confirmation from HMRC, the council want that as part of the HB claim, so I will have to chase that up after new year, as I doubt I will get any sense before then. No sign of Return to Work Credit being paid yet, I got the official notification dated 17 December. It said payment is normally made on a Tuesday and should be in the bank by the Friday but no sign as yet. Next week will be week 4, so at least it should mean a lump sum to start the New Year with..........

Incidentally regarding your alleged visit that took place when you were in and no one heard the intercom etc. I sympathise greatly with you. This seems to be everybodies excuse nowadays.......... On a seperate note, I had an attempted delivery on Tuesday while we were in waiting for it, anyway they tried to get an answer for 10 minutes before giving up and leaving a card. We never heard the bell or door, neither did the neighbours. So I organised it to be delivered on 21/12 because I had to go to my MIL's funeral 80 miles away. Anyway they are now claiming I signed for my item at my property yesterday........ while I was in a crematorium 80 miles away. I must have bloody long arms:madgrin: that's all I can say!

So is this being classed as a positive or negative step RMW?

Another positive to report back, the DEA at my local Jobcentre called today, just to let me know that my RTWC claim had been authorised, she wanted to let me know, just in case the letter was late because of Xmas post. She didn't need to do that, so I was actually quite impressed by it and I think it proves the point that not everyone that works in DWP is bad, or doesn't care about the people they are supposed to be helping. One slight negative......... I still haven't heard from HMRC regarding my self employed registration, I did it online on 29 November and thought I would have got my self employed number through by now. We have to go away tomorrow for a couple of days to go to my MIL funeral, so will have to chase it up when we get back.

Thats a result then:whoo:. Hopefully they will leave you alone for a good while now:-D

Postman delivered a letter from Return to Work Credits this morning......... Good news they have awarded me it and payments are to commence at £40 a week for 52 weeks. I am really pleased at how quickly they have got everything sorted for me and it is nice to know I have that little bit of security for the next 12 months......

I have been reading about some of your trials and tribulations with ATOSser and I do feel for you Margaret. I don't know sometimes where you find the strength to keep going like you do and I truly hope that at some point soon, you get the right result and left alone by them. Though knowing them I think more like months more messing you around infringing on your rights to end up in a long appeal process that you will win following their Eurovision assessment of nil points..........

The Self Employment is going as well as I think it can, it was all a bit rushed in the end as you know I could have done with it starting in January but it is at least nice waking up knowing that I do not have to deal with the odious ATOSsers anymore. We have just had a bereavement in the family (MIL), so the timing could not have been worse for it really. If I can get everything fully running by thesecond week of January I will be very happy. Then I just need to make some houses to build a portfolio, get some orders and make some money. I am spending most of my time organising really for now. There have been a few good stories like moving a wardrobe to make some more room for my working area and it all fell apart on top of me, OUCH! Bloody flatpack furniture taking its ultimate revenge on me. One large hammer, some big nails and blue language and it was all fine again.............. It's going to take time but my business plan isn't forecasting making any money until March 2013, so no need to panic just yet. I am hopefully going to be selling by mid February so that will be ahead of the game if I can pull it off and that is my personal target. How are you getting on with our friends at SHATOS?