To think carers allowance rules are punitive and unfair

[UprootedSunflower]

Carers can claim carers allowance if they earn less than £151 a week, an equivalent annual total of £7852.

Last year I earned £5012. In my job my pay is irregular piece work through a casual contract. I have no control over the processing of claims, some are paid fast and passed on through my employer and others skip months. My employer has also made multiple payroll errors, delayed payments, part payments moved to the next month or back pay.

carers judge my earnings monthly, as I’m paid monthly. I don’t ever actually work over £151 hours a week/ £654 a month but due to my employers being all over the place I’ve had things like no pay one month, then double pay the next. I go over the limit for claiming.

Ive been told it doesn’t matter when I work, they judge the pay days.
it feels so unfair and punitive, I wouldn’t be in this low paid job if with such as disregard to my pay check if I wasn’t a carer.

I would contact Citizens Advice, this sounds ridiculous.

Can you appeal this decision?
I know they are using the date you are paid but surely it is your pay date ie the 28th of the month that they should be using, not the date it shows in your account as this can change for many different reasons. If you are paid 4 weekly then it is different and you are paid twice in one month and there is nothing you can do that month.
I would make an appointment with your MP or even send a copy of the determination and your payslips showing your pay date.
You just need it to get to a decision maker with a bit of common sense.

I agree the rules are absurd OP.l and utterly unfair. It’s blood boiling.

I think the rules need to be totally overhauled. Some folk seem to do hardly any caring and others are more or less 24/7.

What upset me was I kept asking and asking for the reasoning. I was looking at letters and my pay slips, and I could see I couldn’t have earned over.
it was all
’we have been given information’ - wouldn’t say who
i askwd how it was calculated’the decision maker decided’
I suddenly spotted the issue in the phone call; and he bloody admitted it was the reason. But he refused to just tell me.
it was so obtuse
i even asked four times ‘but these are dates in the past, I have the money. What happens now? Will you ask for it back?’
and he kept repeating ‘your claim was successful but we have information you earned over the limit’. Just wouldn’t tell me the next steps, then accused me of not listening to him

Yes, it’s entirely unfair and should be tapered, not have a cliff edge.

The more I look the more confused I am.
For example one period I earned ‘over the limit’ was 23/1/24 until 20/2/24… I’m paid on the 22nd of the month so I actually had no pay check in this period.
How can they believe I earned too much in a 4 week during which I wasn’t paid???
When I spot a reason it doesn’t fit another month.

Take it all to CAB @UprootedSunflower hopefully they'll go through it all with you and help work out what's happened

Yes I got a backdated pay increase which meant my wage was larger. I had evidence it was backdated. There were hundreds of others in the same boat. They stopped my pay for a month. I ended up £50 worse off.

Carers allowance seems a badly managed system.

We claimed for my niece who moved in with us. They rejected it because someone else was claiming it (her mum). I sent them the court documents showing that she had been removed from her mums care, was living with us and was not having any contact with her mum. They replied they can’t pay it to us unless her mum fills a form out to say she’s no longer caring for her. So we never got it!

What other benefit knowingly pays someone fraudulently claiming and refuses to pay the genuine claimant who can provide proof!

But many thousands of carers are affected very badly by this. It keeps them in poverty and/or prevents them keeping up work (which can help their mental health and their chances of finding a decent job when their caring role ends). It also means they have to spend hours on paperwork and stress when they're already exhausted and overworked, so can lead to complete breakdown.

The rule is that you have to be doing carer activities for a minimum of 35 hours a week.

Carers UK (not sure if they're still called that) and also local carer's support should have benefits advisors who could help you with this. Some might have advocates to take some of the stress of those phone calls off you.

Someone has said the dwp can ask a bank to disclose payments when they investigate. This may be the source of their information.
My husband and I have the same pay date and a shared bank account. The same pay roll process the payments too. Someone suggested the explanation is our pay amounts, fairly similar but his is larger, are mixed up

Part time OU student and also carer to my youngest DC. I don't have a paid job so no idea how I would view CA but at the moment it helps.

Don't they cross check with HMRC? I'm sure they do! When I called them they knew my monthly pay. They also average out over the year so I'm not over the threshold even though it looks like I am if calculated monthly. I've also requested weekly CA payments (successfully) even though I get paid monthly from work.

I presumed HMRC, but that would show that monthly, yearly etc I’m under the earnings limit.
Ive been trying to fathom the calculations they’ve used. The periods they’ve quoted with being overpaid
period 1- had no pay check in the 4 weeks
peeiod 2- is a quoted 5 week period with two pay checks
peeiod 3- one pay check well under the limit by £100+
peroid 4- has two pay checks in four weeks due to bank holiday and weekend shifts of payment?
period 5- a four week period in which I earned £70 under the stated limit , gross pay even without deductions.

across the entire year I’m £2500 under the earnings limit last year, though this year isn’t complete it looks to be similar. Term time pay.
They quoted in the letter 4 week periods that look random. And even if I took these as correct I wouldn’t be over the limit.
Weekly pay I guess I’d be over one week in five when I was paid?
Its just really really unclear.

Yes it's super complicated! I think I got lucky when I phoned because the person was very helpful. Try calling again maybe?

Wow I was ringing every month for about 2 years and wvey single time I asked for them to check over the year /term but they said they weren't able to unless it was something like a TA where it was a fixed amount over the year.

They just weren't set up for variable hours jobs.

In 2024 only having communication by mail is ridiculous. I could have emailed or uploaded a response quickly, plus had confirmation of receipt. Instead I have to wait ages for it to be received and opened to find out if they had it. A question back takes weeks. On the phone they wouldn’t share decisions, only note information.
Getting out to the post box, printing, sourcing envelopes when you don’t use them may sound minor- but not with a disabled child to juggle

Completely get that - sounds ridiculous in this day and age! Let's hope the whole carers system is transformed soon.

Do you claim UC? If not, have you checked whether you'd be eligible?

Carers allowance take into account half of any pension cobmntributions. So if you earned £664 per month, putting £20 into a pension keeps you under the limit.

Childcare costs while you are working can also be deducted. If you earned £670 a month and spent £60 on care while you were at work, that would take you under the limit. I have no idea how that work if claiming UC. I am not eligible for it.

As always - please do own research before taking any of the above as gospel.

I have no idea how anyone manages on a super variable contract. There needs to be serious reform to how it is calculated. Surely, when almost everyone is paid monthly, working the amount earned should be yearly. In fact, I thought it was until I received a call from them telling me I had earned too much.

I was an absolute nervous wreck when claiming CA and I don't anymore due to increasing my hours. Hopefully it gets easier for everyone soon.