The 2018 version of the carers allowance claim form included a question for the person being cared for (p9 of the form)
This is missing from the 2020 version
It seems to me that the DWP could be deliberately setting up trouble for disabled claimants, not only by taking the question out of claim foms but also by the way they have engineered the way the carer addition in UC is claimed.
I think all the ususal case law re failure to disclose would be relevant here (a person cannot fail to disclose something that is not lnown)
The DWP will probably argue that the person ought to have known about the carers allowance ( so called constructive knowledge) , but In CG/160/1999 Mr Commissioner Rowland (as then was) allowed an appeal from an Invalid Care Allowance claimant who had not disclosed the fact that the person receiving care was no longer entitled to middle rate DLA. The Commissioner held at [15]
“15. In considering what could reasonably be expected of the claimant, the tribunal may wish to consider whether the Invalid Care Allowance Unit made any inquiries of the Disability Living Allowance Unit during the relevant period in order themselves to check on the claimant’s mother’s entitlement to disability living allowance. If the Invalid Care Allowance Unit did not make any such enquiries, that might be considered relevant to the question whether the claimant could reasonably have been expected to make enquiries of her mother, although if the tribunal conclude that the Invalid Care Allowance Unit acted unreasonably that might not assist her because fault on the part of the Department does not absolve a claimant (Duggan v. Chief Adjudication Officer, reported as an appendix to R(SB) 13/89).”
Its strongly arguable that more can be expected of a carer in terms of making enquiries than could be expected of the person receiving care, even more so now that its become much easier for carers alloance to be claimed without the person being cared for’s knowledge or consent
