Carers Allowance

I know it seems cruel. CA is supposed to be a work-replacement benefit, not that is is anywhere near enough to replace a wage. It is therefore an overlapping benefit, and cannot be claimed once you get a State Pension.
Might you be entitled to Pension Credit?
Might your husband qualify for Attendance Allowance? Worth looking into maybe?

I have never really understood cares allowance as it is such a low amount to cover the amount of care you have to give to be entitled to it.

Does your husband receive PIP? I believe that is supposed to be used to cover help he needs, but has to be claimed before pension age.

The idea is that it compensates you for not being able to work full time. Once you get your SP you are expected to be not wanting to work full time. Don’t shoot me, I don’t make the rules.

Yes, PIP cannot be claimed for the first time after pension age. Attendance Allowance is the one to claim, though PIP can continue for those already on it. It is worth noting that AA does not have a Mobility element, so anyone approaching pension age should claim PIP before it is too late.
62Granny, your husband must be already getting a disability benefit, probably PIP, for you to be getting Carers Allowance. At least 35 hours care a week is needed to qualify.
Turn2us, and entitledto.com, are online sites you could look at and put your details in to see if you are entitled to any other help. Even if you can’t get Pension Credit, you may qualify for Council Tax reduction, which is administered by your local authority, not DWP.
There are also grants available. It is worth putting in your former employment, or your husband’s and you will be surprised what can be claimed for various jobs and professions.

Age UK and Citizens Advice are both good on benefits, on their websites, or by phone, if you can’t get a face to face appointment.

Carers allowance is £81.90 for 35 hours care, it doesn’t seem enough compensation for being unable to work.

That’s if you can get it!!
A sore point for me as I was refused twice and again on appeal, despite DD2 having a life entitlement to DLA.
It a long time ago now, but I’ve never forgotten the injustice.

My brother had to stop working about 5 years ago to be full time carer to my sister in law and her dad who lives with them . He is only allowed carers allowance for his wife. Even thought he looks after 2 people. He gets a small private pension a month but next year will get his state pension then the carers allowance will stop. My sister in law gets enhanced PIP for living and mobility but her dad gets nothing but his state pension and small private pension he will be 92 this year. He can't get attendance allowance. He has COPD and heart problems.

Mind you it took me 35 years to get disability benefits and only got PIP enhanced for living and mobility indefinitely when I went to tribunal last year and only because the Brain Charity got me a solicitor pro bono who worked on my behalf from June/July 2022 until end of August 2023 . PIP after my phone assessment gave me zero on everything. I was born disabled also have a hole in the side of my heart I was born with.

Cabbie was wonderful full of help and information. But the best help was when she wrote about going to a tribunal with a mother and her disabled son. And saying how kind they where to them.

I found the tribunal kind and they listened and asked all the right questions. Only took 50 mins and less that 10 mins they made their decision . I could have cried when they told me my award .

Until either disabled or carers of the disabled assess people no disabled person will get treated fairly. I have heard so horror stories from people who have fought for years for help.

But I know of people where I used to live who where on disability benefits and their was nothing wrong with them . One woman probably told me how easy it was to fake manic depression and how many holidays they had abroad a year and new cars. And they could afford to buy their own home but won't because living in a council house meant they got repairs and new windows etc for free.

Yes we get PIP, it's not even the money in a way I object to losing, but the principle , as you said it was put in to compensate giving up my job to look after my DH, not that it is anything like a wage. I pity people who still have a mortgage and dependants, when illness comes their way.

Whiff Why can your brother's FiL not get Attendance Allowance? The medical problems he has and the fact that he needs care should qualify him.

However, many people do not fill in the forms properly and i would always advise people to seek help completing them. Age UK should be able to help you. I worked and was a volunteer with them for over 10 years working as a Home Adviser filling in these forms and since I stopped doing this I have been able to help quite a number of people, including several on GN get AA when they had been turned down because they did not understand te arcane way these forms have to be completed.

Do PM me if it would help.

i was told to tell DWP that one's caring role continued even when no allowance for it could be paid, something about having an underlying entitlement.

arcane is indeed the word for all of this . . .

An underlying entitlement might mean that other benefits are increased, or that someone becomes entitled to something they might have not previously been entitled to, for example Pension Credit or Council Tax Benefit or Housing Benefit. It is complicated - best to get advice and check it out.

MOnica I only go by what my brother tells me as I don't pry. But I know his father in law had to fight to get carers allowance when he looked after his wife with Alzheimer's. He looked after her for 6 years by himself before he had to admit he couldn't cope and she went into a home . Where she caught covid 3 times had 2 falls the last one she died in hospital . He was 87/88 when he had to give up looking after her himself as with most carers his health suffer . My sister in law helped as much as she could but has MS.

It was the solicitor the Brain Charity got me who told me to claim UC which I did and my caseworker was lovely and told me she would send for the health forms for me and it would be phone appointments from now on. She set up my account for me on my phone. I had a face to face assessment as after my PIP phone assessment I didn't trust people . But the assessor couldn't have been kinder and I got both UC payments. I would never have known I was entitled to UC unless my solicitor told me.

CA helped me get pension credit. I was with them for 3 hours a hour spent waiting for DWP to answer the phone . She helped me fill in the form and wrote down exactly what to say when I phoned on my 66th birthday.

Why is it UC and CA people are so lovely and helpful and care about people when PIP are staffed by robots who don't give a dam about disabled people?

Why don’t you apply for Attendance Allowance and self directed payments . I receive both of these as I’m into my 5th year of stroke recovery. I’m a 75 yr old widow and these payments help me greatly to employ a gardener, someone to do the ironing and someone to clean my house. My local authority has been very good to me. I also receive personal care 4 times a day p, I’m so blessed. pm me if you need advice re these benefits

Bonnybanko I am not sure who you are speaking to? If someone is on PIP they cannot get AA as well.

Cabbie is right I was awarded my PIP before state pension age. Plus attendance allowance has no mobility part so PIP is worth more. As you get living and mobility. But you can only get PIP before state pension age. Once state pension age you can't apply for PIP.

PIP is from 16. I was awarded PIP when I was 65 last year in August . My 65th birthday was April and back dated until I asked for the forums March 2022. Once you get state pension you can only apply for attendance allowance you can't have both awards .

Bonnybanko is in Scotland where the rules are different.

Theexwife

Carers allowance is £81.90 for 35 hours care, it doesn’t seem enough compensation for being unable to work.

If you are classed as terminally ill you will get more I think I receive £108.

that won't be carer's allowance, which is for the person caring for the disabled/ill person.
maybe you are thinking of higher rate attendance allowance, or PIP.

welbeck

that won't be carer's allowance, which is for the person caring for the disabled/ill person.
maybe you are thinking of higher rate attendance allowance, or PIP.

My mistake welbeck I meant the higher rate of Attendance Allowance.

The new government HAVE to shake this business about unpaid carers. God alone knows how much money is saved by this insulting neglect of bloody hard workers.

Overwhelmingly women.

Carers UK estimates that unpaid carers across the UK save the government £162bn a year.

@62Granny,

That also happened to me so I had to apply for Attendance Alowance for my late husband which after 10 months of trying and being refused because the department said he was not ill enough to receive it, we finally received it only for my husband to die three months later. So much for not being ill enough.

I never thought of my state pension as being a benefit as I had paid into it for 45 years but apparently it is.