Carer's Allowance - help please!

[jo4themo]

I was wondering if anyone could help me as I am thinking of claiming Carer's allowance for N but need some advice first. My husband works full time and I currently work part-time (approx 10 hours a week) but am thinking of leaving due to personal reasons. We get Child Tax credit and Family Credit, including a disability element as N gets DLA. She gets low rate for mobility and high rate for care.

I was going to claim Carer's Allowance as I care for her for more than 35 hours a week and I earn way less than £95, but I read on the DWP website that it can affect the amount of Child Tax Credit we receive and I wondered if anyone knows by how much? It seems silly for me to fill in the forms for £53 a week then find that the same amount is taken off our Tax Credit!

Thanks!

[caci]

It does affect your tax credits (as it counts as an income) but not by the whole £53 a week.

 

If you find one of the on-line benefit checkers you can put in dummy details and see how much it changes things.

 

[chris54]

I was wondering if anyone could help me as I am thinking of claiming Carer's allowance for N but need some advice first. My husband works full time and I currently work part-time (approx 10 hours a week) but am thinking of leaving due to personal reasons. We get Child Tax credit and Family Credit, including a disability element as N gets DLA. She gets low rate for mobility and high rate for care.

I was going to claim Carer's Allowance as I care for her for more than 35 hours a week and I earn way less than £95, but I read on the DWP website that it can affect the amount of Child Tax Credit we receive and I wondered if anyone knows by how much? It seems silly for me to fill in the forms for £53 a week then find that the same amount is taken off our Tax Credit!

Thanks!

 

The £53 is added to the family income for tax credit purposes, If my maths is right you would lose something like £20 a week tax credit, if you get the £53 carers allowance.

 

My wife has an underlying right to cares allowance but she does not get it as she gets incapacity benefit and you cant get both at the same time.

[baranigirl]

I did the figures for us a couple of weeks ago (not that we get DLA yet) and it made no difference to our TC amount, but we are a low income family already, I guess same as everything there will be brackets for different levels

 

BTW we both work full time

[chris54]

I did the figures for us a couple of weeks ago (not that we get DLA yet) and it made no difference to our TC amount, but we are a low income family already, I guess same as everything there will be brackets for different levels

 

BTW we both work full time

I should have added that I was making the assumption that Family income was already reducing TC. Look on your tax credit award sheet, it will say how much if any, it is reduced by.(Everyone situation is different so only you would know this.)

 

Also tax credit awards are based on the previous years income (April to March) So if you income goes up it will not affect you tax credit until the following tax year. This overpayment only has to be payed back if your income goes up by a very big amount, Lets just say that if your income went up by the amount needed you probably could repay it without noticing.

 

Also remember that Carers allowance is taxable income.

 

DLA Is not a taxable and is not included as income for tax credit purposes.

[jo4themo]

Thank you for your replies. We have decided to leave it at the moment as what we would gain with Carer's we would pretty much loose with TC, plus my hubby may be changing jobs soon so that will just complicate things.