How can universal credit take all the carers allowance off?

[Kerry_2203]

Could someone please explain this
I get £67.60 x 4 = £270.40 allowance then universal support takes off -£292.93for carers allowance so Im minus -22.53 for being a carer. Im actually paying the government to be a carer. Wtf???

[Melly1]

Hi Kerry,

That sounds ridiculous, but unfortunately nothing surprises me with UC.

My only suggestion is that if UC is paid every calendar month, how is Carers Allowance paid? Every 4 weeks or per calendar month?
If carers allowance is paid every 4 weeks, then UC are deducting no more than than the carers allowance total over the course of a year.

Melly1

[Judith_21061]

universal credit is paid calendar monthly whereas carers allowance is paid every 4 weeks. This means that there are 12 payments per year of universal credit and 13 payments a year of carers allowance. The way UC work it out is to take your weekly carers allowamce figure, multiply it by 52 to get the yearly amount and then divide it by 12 to get the monthly amount
£67.60 x 52 = £3515.20. Then divide by 12 = £292.93

[sunnydisposition]

https://www.understandinguniversalcredi ... youll-get/

You can be getting other benefits and also receive Universal Credit at the same time. For every £1 you receive from them, your Universal Credit payment will be reduced by £1. These include:

Carer’s Allowance
Incapacity Benefit
Maternity Allowance
New style Employment and Support Allowance
New style Jobseeker’s Allowance

[Charles_2112]

Of course, some months you'll only receive the four weeks' Carers Allowance but they'll take the whole month off. It does balance out over the year but the problem is that your money doesn't balance out on a month by month basis, meaning you're a fiver a week out of pocket some weeks. And that fiver can make a big difference.

Yet another example of why the government gets it wrong so easily: they do things in a way that is convenient for them without any thought for the impact on real people.