I was just about to close this case when one of the clients came up with this little curveball...

2 clients: 65 year old lady on HRM & HRC DLA and her carer. They live next door to each other so I am helping them both. Disabled lady recently widowed, I have just got her partial Housing Benefit claim into payment. Also just sorted out the carer's CA & IS claim and full HB/CTB gone into payment - she has no other income and no partner.

The carer just informed me that the person being cared for has now arranged via her social worker for Direct Payments to be made. The carer is now going to be paid £507.00 per month gross.

Obviously considering this income, the carer is earning too much for CA and Income Support, but I still have 3 questions:

1) Can the carer still claim the Carer's Premium within her HB/CTB claim?

2) Can the carer claim Working Tax Credit considering the fact that she is employed, earning just over £6,000 per year and working more than 30 hours per week.

3) Can the person being cared for now claim the SDP within her HB/CTB?

Can't find answers to these specific questions anywhere and you can imagine how helpful the tax credits office and housing benefits were!

Thanks for any help anyone can offer

Hi

I assume that you have checked that the carer has no alternative care costs/pension contributions that would mean her net earnings for CA are actually below the earnings threshold.

1. Assuming CA ceases then the carer premium will only run-on for 8 weeks before stopping.

2. You say that the carer works 30 hours a week. Does she have another job as I am very skeptical that she is being paid for 30 hours care via direct payments. Given the national minimum wage is £5.80 per hour, it appears that she is being paid for 20 hours care at most. She may also be providing additional care on an unpaid basis but any unpaid care would not be counted as remunerative work for tax credits. Some workers can claim WTC on 16+ hours work (e.g. those with dependent children or disabled workers) - don't have enough detail to know if your client would fit into one of these categories?

3. From the info provided, once CA stops there doesn't appear to be anything preventing SDP from being included in the disabled person's applicable amount.

Hope this helps.

Derek

hi

the same query has been posted in the disability related benefits forum -

here's a link to the thread - http://www.rightsnet.org.uk/dc/dcboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=100&topic_id=7615&mesg_id=7615&page=.

please could you post any further replies to that thread.

cheers ros.