Carers Premium

Hi,

I’ve had an enquiry from a client wanting to claim Carers Premium - I’ve no direct experience with the benefit nor are the online resources very helpful!

Client is over state pension age and only receives HB and CTR - not entitled to PC.

Does the client need to claim CA for the “underlying entitlement” and then claim Carers Premium? Can it be added to HB as it says online or does he need to claiming both PC and HB?

Any help greatly appreciated.

Thanks

From our Housing Benefit factsheet.

Carer premium

The carer premium is £45.60 a week and should be included in your applicable amount if you or your partner:
* receive Carer’s Allowance (CA) or Carer Support Payment (CSP) or
* have an ‘underlying entitlement’ to CA/CSP - this means you claimed CA or CSP and fulfil the conditions for it, but it is not paid because you get State Pension or another benefit instead.

We cover underlying entitlement in section 7 of our Carer’s Allowance factsheet but basically, provided the amount of your client’s State Pension exceeds the weekly amount for CA, then she can claim CA and establish underlying entitlement and that should give rise to the carer’s premium and extra income.

Also once you’ve done that, it might be an idea to go back and check PC entitlement again as the carer premium can be included in the PC calculation.