Fri 23-Mar-07 11:50 AM by anadeem

Hi I was wondering if someone can help me on this. A gentleman called me about applying for Carer Allowance for looking after his mother. However his mother is in a care home (BUPA) and is funded by the NHS. What i believe is that because she is receiving care on the NHS she will not be entitled to DLA Care component but she will continue to receive the mobility component of DLA. However he is arguing that he brings his mother home for a visit during the day from 9 till 4pm, 5 days a week and cares for her during that time and should be entitled to the carer allowance. I am unsure how that will work, as don't they use the DLA Care component to pay the care home?

Any answers will be helpful!!

Aisha

Hi Aisha

It is sometimes possible for a carer to claim Carer's Allowance (CA) when a disabled person returns home during the week. However I don't think that this will work in your case. While your carer undoubtedly spends more than 35 hours per week providing care, I don't think he meets the test of providing care to someone in receipt of a qualifying disability benefit (payment of the DLA care component having been suspended after 28 days in hospital).

A claim for CA might have been possible if the mother had been staying overnight on some of her visits home, as she would then have been entitled to DLA for each of the 'days' on either side of the night in which she stayed over. The care spent in those 'days' would also then count towards Carer's Allowance. If this amounted to 35 hours or more then CA would potentially be payable.

However my understanding is that unless a patient returns home overnight then he or she is treated as spending the whole week in hosital (no matter how many times within the week they have come home for a portion of a day). I have a vague recollection of a commissioners decision which specifically said this, although I can't put my hand on it at the moment.

I am by no means an expert on hospital in-patients so I am happy to be corrected if somebody else knows different. However I thought you might find it useful to get some comments on your case.

Regards

Derek