Claiming carers allowance/IS - Completely confused

[mking3181]

Hello all, I am new to the website and forum so firstly apologies if this is in the wrong section. I have a bit of a situation and am very confused as to what to do next and wondered if anyone had any advice, etc...

Its a bit long winded but will try not to ramble too much. I have a 9 year old boy who has been diagnosed with ADHD and is now being assessed for autism. He had some issues at his school so I have moved him to a more suitable one which he started attending at the start of Jan. I work full time and just before I moved him i asked the school if they had breakfast and after school clubs and they said yes. HOWEVER, the school must have thought when i called that it was just a general enquiry as once the move was sorted out, i said to the school can he go to both clubs and it turned out there is no space in ASC and only 2 morning available for BC. The school is in a quite rural area so no childminder that i could find picks up from there, so the only other option i had was to reduce my hours at work to 9 to 3 to work round school. But, im not going to be able to manage on the lower wage, and also, my job isnt really able to be completed properly in the shorter hours, i found myself not having time to get everything done so it only a matter of time before my boss says the part time hours arrangement isnt working.

So, I have very reluctantly been looking into the benefit situation as i really cant see any other solution. It is all very confusing though and im also scared what with all the cuts coming in. From what i gather, i will be able to claim IS, and CA as my son is on DLA which reduces the IS down by that amount. I dont want to not work though and saw online that you can earn up to £100 and still be able to claim. Does the benefits get reduced by whatever you earn, so if i earnt £50 a week, would the IS/CA be reduced by that amount? What about housing and council tax help, do they still help towards paying those? I have the right number of rooms so the bedroom tax wouldnt be an issue.

Im hoping that this will only be for a few months, once the new school year starts in sept im thinking some kids would have gone up to senior school and there will be space in the clubs but until then, this really does look like my only option. Im just very very scared about making the jump, ive worked full time since my son was a baby so the whole benefits system is a lot different to back then and its all a bit daunting.

Any help/advice/ideas very gratefully received.

If you earned £50 a week your IS would be reduced by £30 you would get full carers allowance.

I don't think you can claim icons support and carers though , rather you can claim carers whilst on IS but you just get a carer premium added on to your IS not the full carers allowance amount .
Have you told child tax credits about your ds dla because they will increase.

Sorry keep remembering things , if you claim HB you will get a carer premium and a disability so make sure you tell them about carers and or dla.

Yes. They cut down the IS first, so they chip off what you earn from the IS to all except the last 20. (The 20 may be a differnet figure depending on your circs).

The CA will not be cut unless you earn over 100, in which case you'd lose it all.

You can claim is And ca. You can work up to 16hrs. You will get a £20 earnifs disregard.

carers allowance will be taken into account Against IS. You also will get a carers premium.

Have a look on the gov.uk website, there is a lot of information about carers allowance and also a benefit calculator. On Carers Allowance, you can still get the benefit and work, although there are upper earnings limits and a limit on the number of hours a week you can work. If you work less than the maximum hours and earn less than the maximum amount Carers Allowance isn't reduced and is still paid in full. On Income Support the rules are much tighter regarding earnings. The main thing about Carers Allowance is although you can still work a bit, and keep your earnings, you aren't required to be available for work and don't have to go to the Jobcentre for interviews etc unless you want to.

If you aren't working and have no other income, you would get Income Support at a higher rate because a Carers Premium is paid, less the weekly amount of Carers Allowance which is paid separately. I've always found the DWP Carers Allowance Unit in Preston very helpful, it might be worth ringing them and explaining your situation. There are also a few charities that have good websites with a lot of information about benefits and other help - the Carers Trust is very good and there are forums on there as well. (sorry on my phone so can't give you the links, but if you google you will find the websites I've mentioned)

Brilliant, thanks for all the help everyone, was very useful, the gov.uk website confuses me a bit so people speaking in a language i understand is invaluable :-)

I have another question though, in case anyone knows. I had to attend an appt at the jobcentre today regarding my claim for IS and the man i saw asked me if I had any action plans for the future (he was purely asking out of interest he said, that i didnt have to have any plan but just wanted to offer advice). I have always wanted to be a mechanic, sound silly and pretty much anyone ive ever mentioned this to has has a little laugh to themself, but i said to him in an ideal world, i have seen a distance learning course which teaches you the basics, it only involves 2.5 hrs a week study and then whatever time you want to put in actually with your head under a bonnet, i wanted to try and scrape together the money for that and then thats a job that could work round school hours etc, wouldnt be tied to a desk 9-5. He said they could not fund that as it is distance learning but immediately said had i checked the local college for courses and that they would fund that for me in sept. I shoud have clarified with him at the time but hindsight and all that, what are the rules regarding studying whilst on IS and CA? The courses at the college are all full time (whatever that is, 6 hrs a day maybe, 3 or 4 days a week?), I thought you couldnt do that much studying whilst on CA? Then I thought ok, maybe hes meaning if i come off the CA then i can do it, but if i did that, my son is 9 so they would move me onto JSA and make me get a job wouldnt they?

Glad you lot on here all understand the system, its frying my brain so far.

No, you can't get Carer's Allowance if you are in full time education,which they class as 21 hours a week including homework. So, I wouldn't think you could then get IS either, as you only qualify for IS as you are a full time carer recieving Carer's Allowance - if you don't get Carer's Allowance you wouldn't qualify for IS.