Carer's allowance help please

[di30]

Hi all.

 

For those of you who have carer's allowance, please could anyone tell me how long this takes to process when you first claim ?

I know its possibly going to be "how long is a piece of string" lol.

 

I applied approx 3 weeks ago but have not yet had the letter to say they have received this yet............so do you get one of these like you do when you apply for dla, a letter to confirm the form has been received ?

 

Cheers all, this is all new to me now lol.

 

Di.

xx

[Kathryn]

Hello Di,

 

It's a couple of years since I applied for CA, so I can't remember the details and I applied online anyway,

so the process would have been a bit different.

 

You should probably have received something by now - no harm in phoning the DWP to ask if you're in the system yet, they can look you up fairly quickly on the computer

 

Just pray that your details aren't lost on some disc somewhere...

 

Good luck with it - getting CA is usually an easier task than the mammoth one of getting DLA!

 

K x

[Flora]

Di

 

Did you apply online? Or did you do it by post?

 

I applied online, and it took less than a week for the award to come through. If you did apply online then I think you should have heard by now and in that case you should contact them to find out what the delay is. If you applied by post I don't know how long that would take.

 

Flora X

[JsMum]

Hi I was suppose to be backdated but they only back date upto 3 months and I was not aware I could apply until 6 months passed, carers and DLA do not consolidate so you do have to do all the ringing, I did get a back date but it took a lot longer to process than the DLA, it would be a good idea to ring them and just enquire the progress, carers allowance is very confusing if your on income support because they take away the carers allowanc and give you a top up, I still dont get it, as It still says that I get the carers allowance in my account, but its deducted by I/S and replaced with another payment.

 

JsMum

[di30]

Hi everyone and thank you so much for your replies.

 

I did start the application online then my computer kept messing up, so I was sent a form, got it done the same day and posted it on first class recorded delivery about 2/3 weeks back, so fingers crossed I will hear soon, seems to be an easier process than the DLA thankfully.

 

I do not work but my husband works full time so I should hopefully receive the going rate for this, please correct me if I'm wrong, cheers.

We do not get Income support.

 

Also still waiting for the Child tax credits to get backdated from all the way when DLA was awarded from last DEC 2006, although they did award it from April 07 as they informed me with a good reason you can write and ask them to backdate this award of the extra tax credits where they will discretly decide this, my reason was because of the delay of waiting for a oral hearing which of course no fault of our own.

 

So anybody else in the same situation go for it, just write a letter and explain why you think the award should be backdated on the child tax credits, you will be surprised how many people's award they backdate. Good luck.

 

Will contact the Carer's allowance section today, maybe because of the Christmas post where there will be delays, but yet nothing has gone in the account from them as yet.

 

I will let you know and thanks again everyone.

 

Di.

[Caffeine Junkie]

Have you checked with your bank. My CA payment was in the bank before I received notification that I would receive it. I can't remember how long it took, but it didn't take long.

[di30]

Hi and thanks.

 

Yes I have checked the bank before I rang Carer's nothing gone in from them, then was told on the phone that they did not receive my form until last Monday and it takes between 4 - 6 weeks, hopefully will hear something on that earlier with a bit of luck.

 

I also decided to ring Child tax credits about that award I wrote in about, although they backdated the dla disability premium from April the dla award was awarded from DEC last year of 2006, but for this one I was told to write in about it to claim it separately.

They said to me on the phone because there was overpayments which I was aware of and that they were already deducting the payments every week they decided to take the whole lot from the Dec award as to clear the overpayments.

I am a bit annoyed about this because the arrangement was manageable and not to be informed or even asked about this I think is wrong, I'm now waiting for the award notice to come through regarding this then will take a look and see what they had done, but there were nothing wrong with how this was already being deducted.

 

Cheers all I will let you know of further updates when I hear.

 

Di.

[darky]

Do keep on at them! My hubby has just been awarded carers but not before we had hassle after hassle first. Every time we rang, we spoke to someone different and got told something different. We had a letter saying it had been disallowed, that was a mistake, but try changing things when they mess up! Then they told us hub would only be entitled to it at the end of December, that was false information. In the end hub demanded to speak to a decision maker, and she had to get the manual case papers through. Eventually we were awarded and it was back dated, but we would not have been had we not been very persistant!! Every time someone told us something, we phoned and double checked the progress the next day. It's a good job we did, thats all I can say!

[LizC]

Hi It took about 4 weeks to get my carers through and they back dated 3 months (from around the time we started to getting dla)

[Caroline-]

Hiya Di!

 

Took less than a week for me to get Carer's Allowance (did it online....so much quicker)

 

Good luck

[kirstie]

Does anyone know the tax credit premium rates please? I am no good at working these things out for week to week.

Thanks.

[pauline]

Hiya Di!

 

Took less than a week for me to get Carer's Allowance (did it online....so much quicker)

 

Good luck

 

 

I also applied online & got it within 2 weeks!