Hi its my first time and quite a complicated situation, I am long term disabled with lots of health conditions, my husband is my carer and receives carers allowance.
Our adult daughter receives pip and esa as she is autistic and has adhd. My husband does all the physical care for the both of us but I do everything to do with the mental /emotional side of her care.
We were advised for me to apply for carers allowance by the adult autism team, which I have now done so.
However after reading some articles I see that if I am awarded carers allowance a few things may happen…
1 my daughter will lose part of her ESA
2 we will lose part/some of our income support
Does anyone know if this is correct and would it then be better for me to cancel the claim I started only a few days ago for carers allowance. Life is hard enough I don’t want to be worse off.
Thanks in advance for any advice, Sue
Hi Sue … welcome to the canteen.
Nos. 1 & 2 confirmed … there is an adverse knock on effect … technical term , " Overlapping benefits " …
even if they are dissimilar !
Yep , sounds about right … give to the left hand , take back with the right hand.
First step , an online benefits calculator … great for " What if " scenarios … as you have so described.
That will reveal the effect on benefits claimed if carers allowance enters the equation.
With a bit of tinkering , should reveal which combination produces the best return.
Also , handy to check whether all benefits / allowances out there are currently being claimed.
Universal Credit … rolled out on your manor ?
https://ucpostcode.entitledto.co.uk/ucdate
If not , that’s one bullet dodged !
Have a tinker with the numbers and then return to us with any observations / questions.
Based on those , we might have some realistic suggestions as to how to maximise the total family income.
There’s more than one way of killing a cat! (Apologies to all cat lovers). It sounds to me as if your family should get a lot of help from Social Services.
Have you all had your relevant Needs Assessments in the last 12 months, and Carers Assessments, from Social Services?
Hi, not sure if I’m replying in the right place, I tried to make my question as brief as possible earlier as didn’t want to bombard you all with questions
Thanks very much for the replies, I didn’t know about the online benefits check I will try that.
I’m not finding it easy as I have a lot of physical problems and my husband is also Autistic, although not officially diagnosed like our youngest daughter, so he struggles a lot and suffers from long term depression. We are both on a lot of meds but very positive most days, even though life can be very difficult. The last couple of years since our daughter became an “adult” it has been very hard, the adult autism team were amazing support and said many times we should get some assistance etc. Social services made an appointment to meet our daughter but they didn’t turn up, no phone call or anything, anyone living with an autistic family knows this can cause mayhem and it did. The social worker said o sorry I double booked you and I was going to come next week. Well it wasn’t that easy, it took 3 months to get our daughter to agree to let the lady come back out to meet her again and she came for 30 minutes and bombarded her with questions then said ill come back again next week, the following week we had a call saying the social worker wasn’t coming she was on the sick, that was July last year. In Nov she decided to ring and say sorry its taken so long to get back to you again can I come and finish the assessment!! I was exhausted after spending months fighting for my daughters pip which was initially refused then we got, at the same time pip very kindly decided to make me apply for pip as I was still on dla supposidly for a lifetime. All this had to be done at the same time on my own so I felt very down and just totally worn out.
The social worker turned up in November and our daughter who by this had just had enough, wouldn’t come out of her bedroom.
I could totally understand why she didn’t trust the social worker, she had let us all down and because our daughter wouldn’t talk to her she said I’m sorry but I will have to close the case and left.
I felt frustrated but also thought well at least I had gone through the whole pip saga and fought for my daughter and won and also got my pip too which was a hell of a lot more than some people.
So I didn’t want to complain, I applied for carers thinking it would help with paying phone bills and necessary things to keep our daughter safe but now I think it’s just going to completely mess everything up. Thank you for taking the time to read this if you have made it to the end 
Are claiming income related benefits for your daughter in her own right, i.e. income support etc.?
How many hours support have been offered to your daughter by Social Services?
My son has LD, now 40, I’ve always been very conscious of the fact that one day he is going to have to manage without me.
Is your daughter still at school or college, or attending any day services? Respite care?
The modernised version of ESA when awarded with disability additions and placement in the support group is in effect the replacement for 1990s era income support for a adult like the ladies daughter who is
a not in hospital
b a adult
and
c. Will need very considerable, explicit and ongoing support both accessing employment day in day out and accessing improved pay/conditions eg help through sometimes very very impossible annual review, chats with boss on self improvement on the job cycles.
Wish the three of you every endeavour and a great Wednesday!
Hi Sue and welcome,
I care for S who has autism, and our life is geared around autism. I totally understand the upheaval the social worker will have caused; asking too many questions and being unreliable over appointments, not all autism friendly. I agree with Chris’ recommendation re using a benefit calculator to explore your options and if still unclear, then contact the helpline https://www.carersuk.org/forum/support-and-advice/carer-disability-benefits/how-to-contact-the-carers-uk-adviceline-24147
The real reason I answered your post was because your thread title caught my eye, “Carers Allowance yes or no?” It is a clear, concise, autism friendly question - my friends always laugh at my texts/ questions as they are the same.
Melly1
It doesn’t seem fair that your daughter should have her benefits cut because you are receiving more money. The social work team would do well to check their facts before giving you advice about benefits and your particular social worker needs to be very careful in her attitude towards your daughter, although it was unfortunate that she was ill at time of one of her appointments. What would have happened if she had sent someone else in her place? Your post reminded me, I was advised to consult the Citizens’ Advice Bureau as to benefits I might be entitled to and I haven’t done that yet.
I do hope you get the support you need.
Gilli