Rent and Council Tax

[Alan_1509]

Hi. I hope you can give me some advice. Based on your experience, do people who are receiving carers allowance have 100% of their rent and council tax paid? I may need to give up full time employment to care for my wife, and am fretting about how much income we will have. She is registered disabled (higher rate for mobility).Thanks.

[bowlingbun]

Hi Alan,
Make sure you have specialist advice, ideally from the Carers UK helpline, before making any decisions. The benefits system is a bit like Snakes and Ladders, what applies to one person may not apply to another etc. etc. Has your wife had a recent Needs Assessment from Social Services? Have they done a Carers Assessment for you? There may be services in your area which you don't know about, which would enable you to work, for example.

[daylily]

Hi,
I care for my hubby (64) and we are on Pension Credit, no other income except Carer's Allowance.
Our rent is £500 a month of which the Council give us the LH limit which is £320 a month so we've £180 to find ourselves. it's a 2 bed flat but we only get the LH limit for a one bedroom flat.
Hope this helps.

[Alan_1509]

Thanks people.

[Alan_1509]

Apart from Carer's Allowance, do you know if people with no other income, and in a housing association property, are entitled to any other payments? I'm not really sure what Income Support is. Thanks.

[MumWhoCares]

Hello Alan,

You could have a look at this site, which lets you put in all your details and then tells you what you can and can't claim:

http://www.turn2us.org.uk/

Generally speaking, Income Support is for people who aren't working and aren't expected/able to look for work but are of working age. So in theory if your only income would be Carer's Allowance you might be entitled to Income Support but it does depend on any savings you have and I think is also linked to National Insurance payments over the years but I'm not 100% on that.

Again, in theory, you could claim Housing and Council Tax Benefit but the system has changed so much recently that being eligible for those benefits doesn't automatically mean that you'd receive enough to cover it all. There's also the Benefits Cap now which may affect you; it's a bit of a minefield and difficult to navigate so I would check out the Turn2Us website first and check with your local housing department re Local Housing Allowance (which is the amount they set as maximum housing benefit payments; these change every April so what is current now might not be in two months time!).

[Eun]

We get no other money apart from Carers Allowance and the 15% reduction in Council Tax. Also my DLA. Thats all.

Eun