Anyone been thru this & can advise me.
I hve just been told by DWP phone line that because i just started claiming carers allowance for my elderly Mum, this is why she is no longer eligible for pension credit of £33.42 per week (Mum had the letter showing all the calculations for how her pension credit has been calculated) but it didn’t mention anything about claiming Carers Allowance being the reason for closing her pension credit account
I did think initially it was to do with an Assessed Income Period. It said on the Pension Credit letter workings out that she had £25k. (This was about 10 years ago when she downsized) But now she has less than 10k. But the advisor I just spoke to on the phone said it was nothing to do with this
We live in separate houses. She gets Attendance allowance
When the woman at DWP explained it I couldn’t follow what she was saying. Because she kept using different terms to explain things. But the main thing she said was that me now getting carers allowance cancelled out Mum’s attendance allowance. But that is £92.40. So the maths doesn’t match there
I’m not working because i need to do so much for my 93yr old Mum now. My income isn’t much… £12,500 per year workplace pension. I’m not 67 yet
By losing pension credit Mum will also hve to start paying her council tax I assume, & won’t qualify for the level access shower the aids & adaptations team at the council were promising to fit free of charge. Plus she will lose her TV licence & other health benefits
Anyway out of this? Thank you
Dear Gill
Firstly welcome to our forum, I’m sorry to hear you’re experiencing difficulties with benefits. I would suggest you contact our helpline, they’ll be able to give you advice and support, they can be contact on 0808 808 7777 from Monday to Friday, 9am – 6pm or you can contact us by email (advice@carersuk.org).
I also wanted to highlight some other options for connecting with fellow carers and for getting support from Carers UK should you need it. We are running online weekly meet ups for carers to take some time for themselves and chat to other carers. Feel free to join if you’d like to and there’s no pressure to share anything you don’t want to. I’m sure you’ll find others in a similar position to yourself.
You can find information on how to register to our online meetups at the following pages:
Care for a Cuppa: Online meetups | Carers UK
This social is a great way to have a little break if you are able to and spend some quality time talking to people who understand what you are going through right now.
Please do join us if you would like to Gill.
with kind regards
Ingrid
Hi Gill
Carers allowance should not affect attendance allowance.
You only get carers allowance if your mother gets attendance allowance and these payments are independent to each other.
Try phoning again in the hope you get someone else who can explain things better and see if a mistake has been made and have them explain it to you. I don’t have any knowledge about pension credits.
If the same person answers, hang up and try again.
My mum doesn’t have pension credits and has many aids and a hospital style bed free from the council/NHS. They were going to do an adaptation for the bathroom removing the shower unit but covid came and they told me to do it myself. So post covid I wouldn’t know and things like bathroom adaptations might vary from county to county.
Attendance allowance is taxable so if your pension is over £xx per week you are liable to be taxed on it and need to declare it to the tax office before you get a big bill.
Email your post to the helpline advice@carersuk.org for help.
https://www.gov.uk/income-tax/taxfree-and-taxable-state-benefits
Tax-free state benefits
The most common state benefits you do not have to pay Income Tax on are:
Attendance Allowance
Try a benefits calculator ,
https://www.gov.uk/benefits-calculators
And see what that comes out at.
Carers Allowance - if you are living away from your Mum - will withdraw a premium from her Pension Credit which may be enough to stop her Pension Credit, which will also impact on the Council Tax. Using the calculation they provided, you can probably work out how much was taken away. This has affected a lot of people over the years.
I strongly suggest you contact the helpline, as Ingrid suggested above.
Hi Gill,
just alerting you to a few replies above.