Carer’s Allowance or Premium?

This is a unique subject that I always get confused about and so any feedback would be appreciated.

Client claims JSA (or ESA - WRAC) and wishes to care for a friend who receives middle rate care DLA.

Please can anyone confirm the options or what actually happens…

i) Does the client remain on JSA/ESA and continues to receive £73-10 a week with an additional carer’s premium of £34-95 on top per week OR
ii) Does client claim carer’s allowance of £36-90 with a top up to £73-10 (applicable amount) in the form of income support?
iii) Or is there another outcome with different incomes available etc

Many thanks.

With the way the DWP are looking at people who get CA and claim DLA/PIP themselves they are probably going to start persecuting those on ESA as well as CA therefore may be better on IS! However if placed in SG when on ESA they could be better off. And then you have UC coming into it which can change everything again! Obviously if they stay on JSA they will still have some jobsearch expectations from DWP. If stay on ESA will have further WCA to contend with that could put them off ESA and have to look at alternatives. IS is most straightforward but not necessarily the best financially.

The first step in becoming a ‘carer’ for benefits purposes is to claim Carers Allowance. Assuming that your client does this, and is awarded it, they then have a number of options.

Let’s start on the basis that your client is currently getting income related ESA.

They could choose to continue with this, in which case they inform the DWP that they have been awarded CA. This tells the DWP that your client is a carer, so they should change your client’s applicable amount to include the carer premium. But it also tells them that your client has new income (the CA), so they will now include the amount of Carer Allowance in the income calculation. The net effect of both these things is that overall the claimant will be better off by the value of the Carer Premium (as on the one hand they get CA, which they weren’t on before, but this is deducted from their ESA).

If the client were getting income based JSA all the above still applies, except that the DWP may start asking questions about the compatability of being a carer and seeking work.

In either scenario the client might decide instead to end their claim for ESA/JSA and instead claim IS, as one of the few remaining routes to IS is to be a carer. In this case they would get IS based on the standard personal allowaance plus the carer premium. The advantages to claiming IS are clear: no need to prove jobseeking for JSA, no need to satisfy the WCA rules for ESA. The disadvantages are more complex. If your client is on ESA they would lose the WRAC (if they have one), for example.

There are other issues to consider if the claimant is getting contributory JSA or ESA which I could look at if you need.

Also: beware: if the disabled person is getting the SDP themselves, they will lose it if your client gets CA for them

And just to clarify as Giles touched upon that if the JSA or ESA is contribution based, they will not be paid carer’s allowance but will gain underlying entitlement to the carer’s premium. This has the added effect of meaning that if the cared for person does get an SDP, they will retain it as no-one is being paid the carer’s allowance and it may also bring the carer into means-tested entitlement. Of course if their contribution based benefit is less than their carer’s allowance entitlement (e.g. they are under 25) this will not apply as carer’s allowance will be paid as a top-up to meet the shortfall between the two.