carers allowance

[reallyconfusedmum]

i have been recieving carers allowance for my daughter since april. i was honest from the start and told them i worked very part time as a exam invigilator. ( by very part time i mean that the whole of last tax year i earned £1600 ). i have recieved a letter this morning about my wages and that i earned more than the allowed amount for 1 week and that i also earned more in 1 week in 2010...i didnt work in 2010 i started my job in 2012.
the person i spoke to told me my wages would not be a problem as over the year my wages work out at around £30 a week.
im really confused now as to what is going on was wondering if anyone could shed some light as to why i have recieved this letter.

The dates sound a mistake but as far as I know the person you spoke to is wrong, your income is not taken as an average over the year but on a week by week basis. So any week you earn over £100 you lose CA.
I found the whole thing a nightmare and gave up work in the end.

ok thank you will ring them on tuesday xx

It is ridiculous. You have to earn under £100 a week before you qualify, so even though i was receiving a fraction of my wages when I had to come out of work to look after my husband I couldn't get carers allowance. We save the government and health service a fortune by looking after our loved ones, yet the income threshold is ridiculously low. I know I may get flamed for this but when the kids were young I didn't get means tested for child allowance even though it's our choice to have kids, yet when a family member has health issues and we need to look after them we're means tested. There's no bloody logic to it.

Also because a person goes onto unpaid leave to look after a loved one they're not entitled to any benefits, other than carer's allowance, even though they've NO other income. It's actually better if they leave work altogether, so at least they get benefits but then they're left with no job to go back to when they're no longer a carer so they might end up being stuck on benefits.

Sorry forgot to add. Velvetbee, I know how you feel. It's hard enough being a carer without all the extra difficulties put in your path by the agencies that are supposed to help you.

Don't panic confused, Velvetbee is exactly right and put it more succinctly than me and didn't ramble on

Stay with me that's not true you can claim income support whilst on unpaid leave and claiming carers? Do you mind me asking who told you you weren't entitled ?