How do I add carers element to universal credit?

[PinkPolkaDotUmberella]

Got an existing UC, dh works full time earning 67K a year, we have 2 dc and rent from a HA, we get roughly £650pcm UC. I’ve been caring full time for my mil for a few years and recently found out from the district nurse that as mil gets PIP at the highest rate I am entitled to claim carers element from UC. How would I go about claiming this element? Mil doesn’t live with us but I care for her 7 days per week and over the minimum 35 hours a week.

You are talking about Attendance Allowance here?

It’s hideous, it really is. I’m drugged up to the eyeballs on opioids, to allow me to function like a human being. When the pain killers wear off, I can’t sit down.
Yet the DWP think it’s okay to keep me waiting to “ see” if I qualify for an additional £50 per week.

What a “ system” 🙈

My friend is in a similar position to you and she gets £2.3k a month total benefits and her husband earns £55k. She has a severely disabled child too, and 3 other children.
She’s also in social housing (adapted)

I don’t know why people are shocked by this

My god.

No wonder this country is broke.

Unbelievable isn’t it?

It needs to stop really.

Kids living in a 67k household getting free school meals really is unbelievable. They should just make them free for all kids if this is going to be the case.

The children won't be getting free school meals, they're only for households with an income below £7400 a year.

OP has a disabled child and cares for a disabled family member, both of which restrict her ability to work and bring expenses of their own with them. By supporting her through Universal Credit, the government is saving a fuck tonne of money in social care costs.

They will qualify for FSM from September as the eligibility is changing to all families on UC

So you already get carers for your dc? And if you care for your dc how can you care for your Mil at the same time? Just trying to understand..

OP how many children do you have? Is it 2 or 3?

Op listed three in her UC calculation. Obviously has older kids all born before the 2017 cut off. Many people with three kids will not currently be getting child element for all three, not until it changes again in April.

You will need to complete the 'change of circumstances' section, not just a journal entry.

don't bother claiming - the carers allowance will get taken off your UC!! That’s what happens as they class it as income

No, you’re talking about carers allowance.
OP is asking how they apply for carers element of universal credit.
It’s a payment of £201 something.

They do yes but it still is worth doing because it protects state national insurance contributions.

I suppose you have a valid point here.

This! I had to do this to clsim carers element once my youngest was receiving DLA. I had to remove him from my claim and then add him back on. It was a bit of a palaver esp as the date was so far in past. Then I also had to request back payment for the disabled child element (not relevant for the OP but also back payment of the carers element which is). They sometimes try and say no to this but legally they have to backdate to the start of the DLA claim. They wont do this without you requesting it, really they should just do it automatically!

Those debating how someone can earn so much and still be entitled to UC it is because they have a disabled child. This means OP is unable to work. There are substantial extra costs with raising a disabled child so this buffers some of that and loss of wages. If she didnt have disabled child she wouldnt be entitled to any UC. But disability payments like DLA are not means tested. UC is still.

The majority of families who have a child with disabilities still live in poverty and the financial impact is widely known. Plus no pension etc for OP. It has huge knock on impacts. It is an odd disparity in the system though but I suspect it is a small amount of claimants so not worth clawing back. In same way they dont deduct anything from UC re child maintenance which they used to but stopped. The admin cost more than they saved.

She did, but her initial post said that she had 2.

If your child gets the disabled child element and DLA, then you should already have been entitled to to carers element for them. You can only claim it once no matter how many people you care for so might be better claiming it for the child, as claiming it for your MIL could effect the benefits she can claim.

Op has said that she is now going to claim the carers element for her child and her husband for his mother so two carers elements to be added adding over another £400 per month. Both of a couple are allowed to claim carers elements if caring for different people. However by her husband claiming for his mum it could affect benefits she is claiming.

@Sprogonthetyne thank you, I wasn’t aware it was a thing I should of been claiming until now. I did a change of circumstances form which had a section about caring responsibilities, I’ve updated that as I’m dd carer and dh is mil carer as it’s not income related like carers allowance and he does care for her over night and weekends so more than the 35h on top of working 40h in paid employment. Both have been verified and will be on the next statement, dd carers element will be back dated and not heard about mil as of yet.
Mil only receives pip no other means tested benefits so it won’t affect her financially and the extra money can be used towards her care.

It is completely untrue that she would not be entitled to claim UC without the disabled child. Currently there is only the lower disabled child element on the claim which relates to her disabled child worth around £150 a month. The vast majority of the huge UC total is rent and three child elements which a family would still get without a disabled child on the claim. You could argue that op would be more likely to work if she did not have caring responsibilities but in fact a family on 67k could still choose to have a sahp and still get significant UC if they had rent to pay and three kids. The sahp would have no requirements to look for work if the one earning 67K earns enough to meet the couples earnings threshold which they undoubtedly would. The point I'm making is that this family would still be eligible to claim significant amounts of UC without a disabled child and the carers element which they don't currently claim anyway !

At the start of this thread, you were MIL’s carer. But not that there’s the chance to claim the benefit twice… your husband is her carer. Right.

I know right 😡. So much wrong with this whole thread.

No point just claiming £200 carers element when you can both claim and get £400 + extra a month.