It's my understanding that from 6th April 2010 it will not be possible to make a new claim for an adult dependant's increase with Carer's Allowance, state pension or Maternity Allowance. Pre-existing awards will have transitional protection until 2020.

However does anyone know whether this will be an absolute cut-off on 6 April 2010, or whether the backdating rules will allow someone to apply for an ADI up until 5th July (assuming that they met the qualifying criteria throughout this period).

I would have thought the 3-month backdating rule allows a claim to be made up to 3 months after the abolition date and still include an adult dependency increase. But I phoned the Pension Reform Delivery Programme today and was told that, as far as State Pension is concerned, 6 April will be an absolute cut-off – despite the fact that State Pension can be backdated 12 months.

I’d also be interested to know if anyone thinks differently, ie that 5 July should be the cut-off.

The relevant enactments are:

Pensions Act 2007 s4(1) states: The following provisions of the SSCBA are to cease to have effect on 6 April 2010–
(a) section 83 (pension increase: wife),
(b) section 84 (pension increase: husband), and
(c) section 85 (pension increase: person with care of children or qualifying young persons).

Welfare Reform Act 2009 s15(1) states: The following provisions of the Social Security Contributions and Benefits Act 1992 are omitted on 6 April 2010—
(a) section 82 (maternity allowance: increase for adult dependants); and
(b) section 90 (carer’s allowance: increase for adult dependants).

PS The Carer's Allowance Unit phone number changed in November 2009 from 01253 856123 to 0845 608 4321.
Robbie

I don't think you will be able to argue that a late claim will entitle you to an increase.

The regulations refer to "made a claim" which I think should be taken as the date the claim was made. For most benefits is the day it is received by the relevant benefit office. There are a few exceptions to this rule such as council tax benefit when claiming pension credit (CH/0392/2009).

The act of making a claim seems distinct within the regulations from when your entitlement begins. I cannot see anything in the regulations in relation to adult dependency increases which states that your claim is treated as being made 3 months before.

I’m inclined to agree with A Godfrey, but what puzzles me is that on two occasions I can think of, the backdating rule allowed claims to be made up to 3 months after the abolition date.
1. When IB was replaced by ESA in Oct 08, IB claims could still be made till Jan 09, even tho the ‘date of claim’ was after Oct 08.
2. When child dependant increases were abolished on the intro of CTC in Apr 03, it was still possible to claim child dependant increases on a new claim till July 03.
I don’t know if those regulations referred to when the claimant "made a claim". Does anyone know how those occasions differ from this one?
Robbie