Trying to become carer, not sure of entitlement?

[Rhiannon_1604]

Hello, I am new to this forum.

To give context to my situation, I am 19 years old and my 21 year old friend (who suffers from agoraphobia, PTSD, anxiety and other physical disabilities I cant remember the name of right now but they do affect her mobility levels) has suggested I should look into claiming carers allowance as I am frequently with her -so the hours needed would be covered no problem- and often enable her to be able to leave the house at all and am a great help when it comes to tasks such as cleaning, cooking and shopping.

I have looked over it briefly and the only real bump in the road I can see is that she gets ESA, and out of the accepted benefits I havent seen it mentioned anywhere.

So my question is would I still be in with a chance of a claim because of that? Or would it be wise to suggest her applying for PIP? If so how would this affect her ESA if at all? As a lot of you can probably tell I'm new to this, so any and all advice and help is welcome as I would want to know what I'm talking about before discussing anything with her.

Thanks.

[Henrietta]

Hi Rhiannon and welcome to the forum. You've probably already seen teh government web site giving the entitlement criteria.

https://www.gov.uk/carers-allowance/eligibility

If you still have questions the carers uk advice line are very good and will advise you, They are hard to get hold of by telephone so drop them an email with your circumstances and those of your friend , and they should be able to help.

http://www.carersuk.org/about-us/contact-us

[Rhiannon_1604]

I forgot to mention as well Im currently getting JSA at 50 something pounds a week.

[bowlingbun]

My advice would be to think very, very carefully about this, or you will drift into something which will be hugely difficult to get out of. Think about your dreams for the future - are they compatible with caring for this person?

[Rhiannon_1604]

As at current my dreams amount to having somewhere to live and to have a couple of pets, things which are happening alongside already being with her a lot, I'm not worried about the commitment and am going to think about it closely. Thats part of the reason for me reaching out to a community such as this.

[sunnydisposition]

https://www.nidirect.gov.uk/articles/ca ... titlements

Carer's Allowance - effect on other benefits and entitlements

Claiming Carer's Allowance can affect the level of some other benefits and entitlements that you, or the person you care for, receive. This includes State Pension, Income Support, Employment and Support Allowance and Jobseeker's Allowance.

[bowlingbun]

If she wants you to be her carer she needs to apply for PiP first. It can take a while for applications to be processed. If you then claimed CA, you would not be required to work as well. She would probably be entitled to additional benefit "premiums", so would you.

[Michael_160312]

I know the person being cared for has to be on pip and her ESA will be reduced slightly as she will no longer get the care component because that gets changed to being your carers allowance and you will no longer be able to claim JSA because if you are on carers allowance then you have to do 30 hours a week of care to be eligible so would be considered unavailable for full time employment. Also carers allowance is only £62 a week. the only reason I know all this is because we had to go through it all last year when I married my wife and officially became her full time carer.

Just be aware that if for some reason your friend were to go into hospital for 28 days or more then your carers allowance and their pip will stop as mine has due to my wife getting sectioned in January and it basically renders you unemployable because the employers know that because you are a registered full time carer at any point you may turn round and say sorry my caree is coming out of hospital I can't work anymore as I have to go back to caring for them. so it's almost impossible to get any money because you wont be able to claim jsa unless you stop being their carer and you will struggle to get a job due to not knowing how long you will be able to work. They told me my wife was only going to be in for 4 weeks and since then every week they tell me she will be discharged the following week. so do have a really long hard think about taking on this role.

[bowlingbun]

The rules are different depending on your relationship with the caree. Be sure to ring/email the Carers UK helpline for a definitive answer. They're the experts. Whilst we can say what applies in our own situation, that may not be the same as yours.