Carers Allowance and temporary foster care (interim care order?)

Hi all,

I met briefly with a client yesterday who is in receipt of Carers Allowance as she is caring for her disabled son.  Her children (including son) were temporarily removed from her care 8 days ago by Social Services due to an allegation of domestic abuse.  She has been investigated and no evidence found however children have not yet been returned to her as there are apparently some processes to go through first including accessing support for her to care for her disabled son.  She expects the children will be returned within 4 weeks though nothing definite at this stage.

I cannot find anything anywhere about such a situation and whether or not she would still qualify for Carers Allowance during this temporary absence.

Can anyone shed any light?

DLA care component continues for 28 days after claimant is in a care home if any of the qualifying services are paid from public funds. That would seem to cover foster care—not very precisely but a bit. The mobility component continues but anyway your children are coming home. (welbens pg 919)

CA continues as long as the person claiming DLA qualifies for care component pg 921.

There’s more in various circumstances around those pages. Look for it like that—what has happened or should happen to the child’s DLA—what therefore should happen to the CA.

She is not actually caring for 35hpw of course so that is something else to bear in mind

Caring for someone else for at least 35 hours a week is a basic condition of entitlement to CA.

However, see p.557 of CPAG 2017/18 and the information about breaks from caring.

If your client has been providing care for at least 35 hours a week in 22 or the last 26 weeks, then she can have a four week break from caring inj any period of six months.