Can two carers, looking after one person, be on one UC claim without being expected to work?

Hi,

Client is carer for 19 year old son (severe Autism). Gets CA. Husband currently works. Son is leaving education in July so CTC will end. Husband wants to finish work to be full time carer for son.

When son leaves sixth form he will claim UC in his own right (hopefully with LCWRA).

Client wants to then claim UC with husband. Is worried that DWP won’t accept that her son needs two full time carers. She has confirmed that when her son finished education he will need two full time carers. Even currently her and her husband meet the 35 hours despite their son being at sixth form full time.

2 questions:

As long as the husband passes the ‘Carer Test’ he should be exempt from work related requirements right?

Can the son start UC claim before he leaves education or will he have to wait until the mum’s CTC has ended? Just wondering if they can avoid a gap in payments.

Thanks as always

I might be way off here - but no, only one parent can be nominated to be a responsible carer. DWP might agree to reduced hours for the other parent but unlikely that they would both be exempt from all work related requirements.

Considering they can only claim one carer’s allowance, why is the father considering leaving work?

MKM35 - 19 February 2019 05:16 PM

I might be way off here - but no, only one parent can be nominated to be a responsible carer. DWP might agree to reduced hours for the other parent but unlikely that they would both be exempt from all work related requirements.

Considering they can only claim one carer’s allowance, why is the father considering leaving work?

Cheers MKM

I believe he is struggling to maintain caring duties and work. I think there is a lot of night time care involved. Obviously they can only get one UC carers element as they are caring for the same person, however the main concern of the client appears to be that the husband would be expected to work.

The son is being assessed by social services but the client seems under the impression the care offered by them will not be sufficient.

My initial thought was that it would be unlikely for the JC to accept no work requirements for both of them (especially while the son is still in full time education), but then I wondered if he is meeting the criteria for a carer, whether he would be ok due to this.

Even though both might meet the criteria for a carer, only one can be nominated as the “responsible/ lead carer”. I suppose your client is the current nominated carer and exempt from all work related requirements.

ADM J3 para J3056 effectively states that if the claimant is a carer, DWP will agree to a reduced number of hours that it considers compatible with caring responsibilities. So if the husband is not the lead carer, DWP would expect him to agree some work rel. req. compatible w/ caring responsibilities as a parent but not the responsible carer.

It says DWP must be satisfied that there are reasonable prospects of getting work given reduced hours….. yada yada yada.

Fantastic thanks for pointing me to the relevant part of the ADM guide.

I will let them know that the JC may agree to reduced hours but won’t exempt them both from work related activities as carers.

Thanks again!

Regarding my other question, whether the son can start up the UC claim a few weeks in advance. The guidance states this is only an option for care leavers and prisoners so can’t see a way of getting in early and shortening the gap between CTC and UC unless I am missing something