Carers allowance for the husband, better off or not?

[mafiaduck]

Hi.

 

For the last 3 years, I've been the carer for my wife. Through unemployment, we have a joint ESA claim. Due to unemployment, I had the spare time to look after her, and did as I imagine any partner would do.

 

The claim is in my wife's name, we get £280 a fortnight, as she was last put in the work related group, although her advisor believes she should be in support... But we need to wait for the next medical, and the people doing that have previously failed her 3 times with 0 points, before we went to court each time and they found she should have scored between 10 and 16.

 

Anywhooo, it's a struggle. We recently had a friend, who was also on ESA. She lives alone, but has a partner. She got put in support group, and got enhanced disability, despite being far more capable than my wife of working. She gets £140 for that a fortnight, and gets a total of more than £100 than us.

 

We asked at the CAB about what help the was for us, to see if my wife was entitled to more help and we were told to apply for enhanced disability and carers allowance.

 

We did this 4 weeks ago (told it will take 9 for carers allowance to be checked).

 

Enhanced disability, I phoned them for a time frame, and got told flat out that my wife was entitled to nothing. Because I'm not getting PIP (my wife does) as I'm her partner, and look after her, she is entitled to nothing.

 

So I asked for their advice on what to do, to which he said don't bother with carers allowance. Because of I get it, at £62 a week, they will deduct £124 a fortnight from my wife so we end up with no difference, just a load of hassle?

 

Is this true? I knew some of the £62 would be taken, but I thought you got an extra £30-something as a carers premium? So you do actually end up slightly better off?

 

It's confused me now, and I don't know if it's with just cancelling it, to avoid the hassle of the benefit being split, deducted, etc.

 

From what the disability premium guy said, it sounds like being in a relationship is a punishment, especially if you choose to be your partner's carer

 

If it does work out better for us though, how much is back pay entitlement? It'll be 10 weeks from claim date by the time it is awarded, if we get it, but can it go further?

 

We're a bit annoyed really, because our advisor knows I've been my wife's carer for 3 years, and not once has she mentioned the extra help we could get, that apparently we should have been able to request all that time ago

[mafiaduck]

hi, I'm hoping someone here can clear this up for me.

 

In June, my wife went for a PIP meeting. She got PIP without issue, but the nurse she saw told her she should really apply for higher disability component on her ESA, or I should get carers allowance, she told us to apply for both and hopefully we'd get one. If we got both, one would automatically be cancelled.

 

So that night, we applied for both.

 

3 weeks later, I called up Carers Allowance (we were told it would be 2-4 weeks, so i just called for an update) I was told it was still processing, and would likely be middle of August before a decision is made. He went through our benefits, and said that what would happen, is that our ESA would be reduced by approx £30 a week, and we'd get £60 a week carers allowance. So we're £30 up a week (which is hugely beneficial as I'm unable to work due to needing to be around for my wife)

 

a week later, I called up the team who deal with Higher Disability payments at ESA. My wife had been refused this, and I asked about the Carers allowance, asking if they thought this would have any effect on my claim there (i was unsure if refusal for this, would mean refusal for carers) and I was told flat out, that Carers Allowance is pointless, because if I get it, it will be £60 a week, but our benefits will be reduced £60 a week too. So we'll get nothing, and it's just a hassle

 

I hoped he was mistaken.

 

Today I got a letter. We got the carers allowance. For some reason, it wont start until September the 4th, but thats ok. It then says we are owed back payment back to March 27th, but then also says it wont pay us any payment without DWPs say so as we have claimed ESA in this time, and our ESA would be equal to the money we were owed from Carers Allowance.

 

So does this mean the latter phone call was right? if the first one was right, I'd be owed 21 weeks of £30... but in saying that ESA wiped it out, that would indicate the second guy is right and we'll be getting nothing extra here? in which case, what is the point of being registered for carers allowance? we were told it would help our financial situation, and that we are owed it. But it looks like it will help nothing.

 

My letter states that I'll get a financial breakdown on the week of September 4th, which means I'll not even know how it is being paid until AFTER it's started.

 

Has anyone here got any experience with this? and can anyone give me any idea as to whether or not we will be getting a slight financial increase? or if, on following the PIP nurses recommendation, all we've done is just make our payments even more confusing for no reason at all.

 

Thanks for any help. This has been puzzling me since the phonecalls, and this new letter has done nothing but make it more confusing

[reallymadwoman]

In order to answer properly, you need to say exactly what benefits you and your wife already receive including any premiums and whether her ESA is contribution based or income based.

[mafiaduck]

In order to answer properly, you need to say exactly what benefits you and your wife already receive including any premiums and whether her ESA is contribution based or income based.

 

We receive income based ESA, couples rate and she's in the work related group (her advisor thinks she will be put in support group after her next medical)

 

We also get PIP standard daily living rate

 

Housing benefit and council tax benefit are also claimed

[antone]

Yes, I have experience of this (I'm a former ESA processor), and the answer is that you'll be better off by the amount of the ESA Carers Premium. This is added on to your claim when someone on that claim receives CA. So your ESA is increased by about £30, and then your CA is taken into account in full and deducted from it. So your weekly payment overall will increase by about £30.

 

CA can't pay arrears until the ESA section tells them how much your ESA would have been reduced by had CA been in payment for the period in question. All this means is that your arrears of CA will be cut (roughly in half) to take account of the fact that you'd have received less ESA. If anyone's curious, this process is called "abatement".

 

As an example with made up numbers, suppose you received £100 per week income related ESA. You would get the Carer's Premium, increasing your payment to £130. Then the £60 of your CA would be taken off leaving £70 payable.

 

So before, you get £100 ESA only. After you get £70 ESA + £60 CA making £130.

[mafiaduck]

Hi,

 

So my father currently receives ESA, and a Pension (he's 61, the pension started paying out at 60) as well as housing benefit.

 

Due to his pension (£350 a month, taxed at 20% due to the tax office being stupid which is in the process of being fixed) his entitlement to ESA is just £7.80 a week. So his income is roughly £300 a month after tax.

 

His ESA was cancelled, and we appealed, this is due in court next Wednesday. We expect to lose, based on previous experience with mental health appeals (my dad is under a psychiatric specialist for extreme anxiety, paranoia, depression and he also has a few general health conditions. He wont leave the house without me, and cant have visitors without or take phone calls without me being there). So from next week he'll be losing the ESA, but with tax sorted, he should actually be slightly better off and be at £350 a month.

 

Obviously, this is not enough to live on. Council tax, TV license, Water, Electric, Gas, phone and food wipe him out completely. Thats without his TV bill or internet (£40 a month, combined. Pretty essential to him due to the sheer amount of time he is indoors) or any other small costs.

 

He cant sign on to JSA, he tried before but as good as the office were at letting me go to his appointments, i couldn't attend interviews with him... or feasibly work with him. So he had his benefit cancelled when he missed two interviews due to panic attacks.

 

So i'm struggling to find a way to help financially, as I'm sure he must be entitled to something. We did try a PIP claim, but we turned down as his physical health wasn't deemed bad enough, as he can look after himself in his home (as in i dont bathe him, or cook his meals) he scored low, as his mental health issues affect his interactions with others rather than daily living.

 

So I was wondering if anyone knows if he is entitled to Income Support to help bolster his income a little?

 

I know Income Support does allow you to claim if you have illness and/or are disabled. But there's no qualifying criteria listed for what the level of illness is.

 

I could just do with having some idea, because applying for anything where he may need to speak to anyone is a huge stress to him, even as little as clearing security and passing a call over to me. But right now he's getting incredibly down and his depression is getting worse because everything at the moment seems to be about him losing things. Although losing ESA, will actually see him get extra money from his pension, its not enough for him to get by, and his savings are almost wiped out from making up the deficit over the last couple of years (never been about £10,000, always declared, and now less than a £1000)

 

Any help, information, previous experiences would be great.

 

Thanks.

[mariner51]

Why do you feel hmrc was wrong to tax his pension payments at 25%?

[antone]

It's no longer possible to make a claim to Income Support on the grounds of illness or disability - that was replaced by ESA some years ago. So unfortunately the basic answer is "no", he's not entitled. The only grounds for a new IS claim are being a carer in receipt of Carers Allowance, or a lone parent of a child under 5. His best bet, then, would be the ESA tribunal. Has he prepared a case, or sought assistance in doing so? The reason I ask is that if he (and you) have assumed that he will lose from the outset, it may be that not much effort has been made in figuring out how to approach this. Yet people do win these cases, and the ones who succeed tend to have put together a decent case.

 

Basically, what I'm saying is that the tribunals generally know that the rules are harsh and that the DWP and Atos/Maximus/whoever tend to be very "trigger happy" when it comes to refusing benefits. They are not unsympathetic, but you do need to give them something to work with.

[mafiaduck]

Why do you feel hmrc was wrong to tax his pension payments at 25%?

 

Because his total income is under £4500 a year. He gets his pension at £330 a month and ESA at £36 a month. There should be no tax for earnings under 11000 a year, he's way short.

 

Tax office has confirmed this, but they kept forgetting to send his tax code to his pension supply, so it was never adjusted. They know they owe him him back pay, but it's been a long prices correcting it

[mafiaduck]

It's no longer possible to make a claim to Income Support on the grounds of illness or disability - that was replaced by ESA some years ago. So unfortunately the basic answer is "no", he's not entitled. The only grounds for a new IS claim are being a carer in receipt of Carers Allowance, or a lone parent of a child under 5. His best bet, then, would be the ESA tribunal. Has he prepared a case, or sought assistance in doing so? The reason I ask is that if he (and you) have assumed that he will lose from the outset, it may be that not much effort has been made in figuring out how to approach this. Yet people do win these cases, and the ones who succeed tend to have put together a decent case.

 

Basically, what I'm saying is that the tribunals generally know that the rules are harsh and that the DWP and Atos/Maximus/whoever tend to be very "trigger happy" when it comes to refusing benefits. They are not unsympathetic, but you do need to give them something to work with.

 

 

This is his second tribunal. It's the fifth one I've attended. I attend for my wife as I am her carer. I always build a strong case, get plenty of info, read ductus reports thoroughly. My wife got 3 scores of less than 5 before tribunals, I got them changed to scores of 18+.

 

So I have an idea how they go, however with my dad, I built his case up at his first tribunal (2 years ago, he signed back on to ESA when a psychiatric was appointed) and due to so little evidence to support his mental health issues they agreed with the ESA review team.

 

There's more evidence this time, it's all built up, and I have the ESA review notes and have more checks to their mistakes (such as it being noted that he was comfortable in the review and answered all questions without issues... When in reality, the interview was stopped twice and he was told to take his medicine and have water, whilst I answered his questions)

 

It's just that with a lot of things not going right at the moment for him (lots of little things) he's not got much faith in this going right.

 

Thanks for the information though, I thought income support still allowed application based on illness as that's still listed as an option on the government website