Severe Disability Premium vs Carer’s Allowance problems- tactics wanted!

Hello everyone,

I have a couple, neither of whom are in receipt of or entitled to a State Retirement Pension, but who both receive Attendance Allowance and Carer’s Allowance.

They’ve been in receipt of Carer’s Allowance for 3 years, and they were assisted in making the applications during a home visit from the Pension Service. They remember their Pension Credits reducing at this point.

Unfortunately, this has cost them around £47 per week for the duration of the claim.

My initial thought is for both of the couple to withdraw their claims for Carer’s Allowance, and in doing so, increasing their overall income from £405.30 per week to £452. 50 per week (in Pension Credits). I don’t think that this will be a problem, as both client’s are finding it difficult to fulfil their caring duties.

I would like to go back to the circumstances surrounding their initial claim, and claim that an error was made by the DWP when recommending the couple make Carer’s Allowance applications.

I want to claim that the couple were misadvised at this point, and request that the income that they have missed out on so far paid to them.

Does anyone have any thoughts?

Many thanks,

L.

If they were on Pension Credit who contacted the Pension Service in the first place, and why?

Be careful how the claim for CA is withdrawn - there may be problems if it is withdrawn on the basis that they would be better off (Depriving yourself of a non-means tested benefit to get a higher award of a means tested benefit may lead to the amount of the CA being classed as notional income). The claim should only be withdrawn on the basis that they no longer qualify - for example if they were now unable to care for 35 hours due to own poor health etc
Shame that they don’t qualify for State Retirement Pension to overlap with CA - it’s nice when people can get SDP and Carer’s Premium

Hi,

As far as I can tell at the moment, a layperson (benefits expert) advised them to apply, but the application was completed at home by a Pension Service representative.

I’ve spoken to a Pension Service (back office) advisor, and asked if withdrawal could be viewed as deprivation of income, and he thought not. I’m inclined to agree on the basis that the income is paid on the basis of their carrying out a task (caring) and the Pension Service can’t force anybody to be a carer (I don’t think!). Both clients are in their 80’s, so, if anything it could be seen as relieving a burden, and increasing their income to allow for outside help.

So, I’ve visited the client’s, recommended they withdraw their claims for CA on the basis that they are finding it too difficult to continue fulfil their caring responsibilities, and while I was about it realised that they should never have been advised to apply in the first place, as doing so has left them worse off. 

I suppose the question is, did the Pension Service have any duty to ensure that this couple were receiving the maximum amount of income that they were entitled to? Did it amount to negligence of any kind for the PS to proceed with an application that the rep should have known would leave the couple poorer?

L.

I think look first to see whether the CA claim was appropriate purely on factual grounds. It sepends on the circumstances - for example if help is needed to lift someone out of bed then if the carer is also physically disabled then that could undermine their own DLA/AA claim, and they should have declared straight away that they were unable to provide that care. If one person qualifies on attention grounds and the other on supervision then they’re on safer ground as there’s nothing in the care that they provide that undermines their own claim. If you’re sure that there is no risk then consider an ex-gratia payment on the basis that with the SDP they could have afforded some respite. Otherwise best left

Hi Phil,

Thanks for that; it was actually attention for one and supervision for the other…. I’m confident that the AA awards wouldn’t be compromised.

It’s a shame that it happened in the first place.

Sadly familiar though! Glad the AA is safe - that would have been the icing on the DWP’s cake!!

An ex-gratia payment may be made for loss of statutory entitlement following wrong or incomplete advice by an officer of the DWP.  However, proving it is going to be the difficult thing.

In essence you are going to have to reconstruct the conversation (or at least the gist of it) 3 years ago between the PS officer and your clients.  This could be difficult as your clients might not remember it in sufficient detail.  The PS officer might have a different version or the case file contains a different version, or he cannot be identified with sufficient certainty to give his version of events.  It is likely that more will be required than just your clients’ word unless an alternative version of events seems highly unlikely.