Carers allowance

[Guest Another Spartacus]

Morning all,

 

Can anyone point me in the right direction please.

 

Mum and I live together, shared ownership of house, no mortgage. She now receives HRM HRC with the help of you lovely peeps on here. I have been on ESA assesment phase (conribution based) for the past month and I was finally ill health retired by my company last week with lump sum, but appealing.

 

Is it correct that as I am now no longer employed I can also claim carers allowance for mum and still receive ESA.

 

Many thanks for pointing me to correct information.

 

Thanyou xx

[MIKEY DABODEE]

You can, you will be awarded U/E to carers which will give you the carers premium.

 

Because you are on ESA conts you cant get paid CA but you will get just the underlying entitlement to it.

 

If for any reason your ESA ceases then you will be paid CA.

 

You cant have both the benefits in payment to you at the same time

 

Carers premium is an extra £32.05 a week on what top of what you are getting now.

 

Of course ESA conts will run out after 52 weeks then you could get CA put into payment and transfer to I.S, as long as you have capital under 16k you mention a lump sum

Edited May 30, 2012 by MIKEY DABODEE

[Nystagmite]

You have the option of claiming income support (IS) instead of ESA as a carer. This means you won't need to attend medicals.

[Guest Another Spartacus]

Hi and thanyou so much for your replies.

 

Have started completing online form today....but OMG the site is so slow, keeps crashing...B***ER

 

I'll keep you updated re outcome of claim.

 

Thanks xx

[MIKEY DABODEE]

Good luck with it. Remember you can get it backdated for three months just ask for it, extra premiums will be paid if awarded

[Guest Another Spartacus]

Hi peeps,

 

I fianaly completed the carers claim pack on line and received a call on Saturday from someone at DWP to check on a couple of things on the application. So I should be hearing from them sooner rather than later.

 

Thanks Mikey, by the time my ESA runs out, IF it runs out, it's verrrryyyy likely that my lump sum will be less than 16K:wink: so it is very likely that I will just have to claim IS

[MIKEY DABODEE]

capital under 6k doesnt effect I.S but capital between 6 and 16k is subject to tariff income, say you are left with 12k then thats a sum of £24 taken off your I.S.

but you will still be entitled.

when your ESA conts run out you may want to go on ESA IB, then your capital will be taken into account as above.

If you have to spend your savings in large chunks then keep receipts, you should be ok but just in case

[Guest Another Spartacus]

So I've been told today, DWP phoned me after I had queried application, apparently I can't get carers allowance U/E brecause I am on assesment phase cont ESA.

 

Is this correct?

[Nystagmite]

That doesn't sound right. If on cont based benefits and income and savings are low enough, you can get income based as a top up.

[MIKEY DABODEE]

No I think that is wrong, you cant get CA and ESA conts but instead you should get U/E to CA which gives you the carers premium.

First thing I would do ring Carers Allownace and ask them have you U/E entitlement to Carers then if they say yes,

ring ESA and thell them to check the CA sceens this can confirm and ask for the premium to be applied from date of claim....

[flumps1976]

As long as you are entitled to the carer allowance but are receiving ESA regardless of what component you should still be entitled to the underlying entitlemt which gives the carer premuim.

Mikey is correct

[Guest Another Spartacus]

Having recently received notification from DWP I have been informed that I am not entitled to Underlying Entitlement.

 

I even phoned them and I was assured that no I was not entitled to carers allowance for my mum.

 

Anyone know what I should do next or is there something in writing that states that I do have Underlying Entitlement please.

[Nystagmite]

Have they explained why there's U/E?

[MIKEY DABODEE]

Having recently received notification from DWP I have been informed that I am not entitled to Underlying Entitlement.

 

I even phoned them and I was assured that no I was not entitled to carers allowance for my mum.

 

Anyone know what I should do next or is there something in writing that states that I do have Underlying Entitlement please.

 

Ok then

couple of questions

Does your mum still get DLA care middle or higher?

Does anyone claim CA for her?

Do you care 35 hours for her?

Are you on ESA conts or ESA Income Based do you know?

[Guest Another Spartacus]

Mum receives HRM and HRC indefinitely she is almost 75 years old also and receives her pension.

She also receives pension credits which we had no idea she was entitled to till I started reading this forum, this was awarded in May of this year.

No one receives carers allowance for her or ever has.

I have been caring for my mum for at least 80 hours per week since my father died.

I applied for carers allowance in July and was turned down but further to a telephone conversation with DWP I enquired about UE

Advised to contact ESA dept and it was ESA that said I do not have U E entitlement because I am on assessment rate of ESA and it is contribution based.

 

I have been claiming ESA contribution based @ 71.00 per week since mid April of this year

I was Ill health retired 'got rid of' May of this year

[Nystagmite]

I would be tempted to stop claiming ESA and claim CA and IS instead.

[MIKEY DABODEE]

ESA the joys...

All premiums on ESA are paid via ESA IB..

This means any one on conts gets the premiums as a top up through ESA IB.

 

But first is the thirteen weeks assesment then Support or Wrag, you will get a top up after being placed in either. Then its at this point premiums would be applied.

But reading back you say you may have capital over 16k so this will stop the entitlement to ESA IB top up, and in a nutshell means no carers premium.

[Guest Another Spartacus]

Thanks for your clear response Mikey, I completely understand it all now.

 

As I now have under 16k of capiatal (due to living off £71 per week) I should be able to get carers premium then.

 

Another question please:

 

When I apply for the carers premium will the premium be backdated to the 13 week rule.

 

Thanks

[MIKEY DABODEE]

First I would phone Carers Allowance Monday,

Ask them to confirm that you have indeed U/E entitlement to Carers Allowance and from what date was it first awarded.

You have confirmation then from them

 

Right with regards to your capital, remember 6k will be disregarded and then £1 tariff income applied for for every £250, so say you have 10k, then it will be £16 tariff income.

So if you definately have under 16k ring the ESA contact centre. ask for a call back, Speak to the section, most important

Tell them you are entitled to the carers premium and should be in receipt if ESA IB as well as your ESA conts to claim the Carer Premium.

 

Now I am not an ESA bod but I think you Should be entitled from day one of your ESA claim if claimed CA, or from the day you were awarded CA which ever.

And they may have the thirteen week rule but you should get the CP backdated.....

I have no doubt. As long as you fit with in the ESA IB criteria to claim it..

As well as capital, pensions etc are taken into account against it and are classed as an Income, so if you have any these will have to be declared,

Edited September 1, 2012 by MIKEY DABODEE

[Guest Another Spartacus]

Thankyou so much for your help.

[anniea]

Sorry - just hijacking thread - so if you are on ESA©, have occ pension that is more than £32.05 I would not be entitled to Carers premium? Have I got that right>

Thanks

[sillygirl1]

Not necessarily, I would check on http://www.entitledto.com and put in your details, that then takes you through questions and comes up with a printable sheet which shows what your entitlement may be.

 

Don't just take it for granted you won't get anything at all - nor believe everything you read on internet forms about allowances etc... the entitledto site gives you the FACT.

[MIKEY DABODEE]

I agree with Sillygirl check

 

but it depends on what ESA you are on ESA IB or ESA conts.

and if ESA conts did you transfer from IB, and if you did, what year you made your claim to IB, transistionally protected

but

Pension income rules

 

If you receive contribution-based Employment and Support Allowance and have a gross pension income of more than £85 a week, the amount of benefit payable will be reduced by half of the excess.

The excess is the difference between £85 and the actual pension income. For example, for a pension income of £100, the excess is £15. The amount of Employment and Support Allowance payable is reduced by half of that, which is £7.50.

If you receive income-related Employment and Support Allowance, any pension income you have will be taken into account, regardless of the amount.

[anniea]

No - Never been on Incapacity - went onto ESA© support group nearly 3 years ago. Was working until then. Just about to re reassessed. Hubby on Incapacity for number of years, just going through transfer to ESA, has DLA HRM and MRC - have never claimed carers allowance as earned more than the required amount to be eligible. Just saw this thread and thought I might enquire. Is all the pension taken into account when claiming carers or the amount over the £85.00?

Thanks

[MIKEY DABODEE]

Its a bit complicated to explain but

 

You are on ESA conts, you have a pension, you can apply for Carers Allowance, if you are caring for over 35, hrs.

You should have no problem and awarded entitlement to Carers Allowance.

But because you have ESA conts CA will not be allowed to pay you CA, as its an overlapping benefit, in other words you cant have these two at the same time. These two being ESA conts and CA

Your Pension by the way does not effect CA.

 

So instead of CA in payment the CA unit will award you Underlying Entitlement to CA U/E. This means that you are a carer for benefit purposes and can now claim the Carers Premium if entitled

 

Back to your ESA conts claim now. After you have claimed CA and been awarded U/E entitlement, then phone ESA and they will award you ESA Income Based this is how the CP is paid, on top of your ESA conts.

Your pension will be classed as an income. Also I dont know how you would go on with your Husbands I.B, its classed as household income.

But apply and see how you get on, they can only say no

 

But I would advise you to claim the CA, because if your ESA Conts ever get stopped for any reason then CA could be put into payment.

and you would have some benefit.....

It is a minefield