Child maintenance and carers allowance? Confused!

[TaniaL]

Hi long one so I do apologise.
First of all I got my calculation amount and dates I'm expecting to receive my child maintenance today. Who do I inform of this and will I lose any benefits or have to pay more rent or council tax (currently unemployed looking after my 2 year old son)
2nd thing - I have recently applied for carers allowance and I am still awaiting a decision but my question is I get income support and child tax and child benefit how much of these would I lose? And roughly how much if anyone can say on personal experiences? Also I've read somewhere you can actually claim working tax credits if your claiming carers allowance although I thought this wasnt correct but could someone please clarify, finally please could someone tell me who I actually need to inform that I am getting these and would these mean me having to apply for universal credit due to there been a change in circumstances? Thankyou in advance x

I'm pretty sure you cannot claim wtc and carers allowance unless you are working alongside carers allowance even then I'm not sure it would work as the threshold for earning and claiming carers is about equal to working 16 hours and you would have to work over 16 hours as a lone parent to get wtc.
On income support, the carers is taken off the income support then a carers premium added on so you are better off by claiming carers by about £34 a week I think.

Wtc as a single person you need to be working 16 hours a week to claim .

You have to earn under a minimum ( can’t remember figure to claim careers)

Maintenance is not classed as income . Caters us though and deducted from income support

You don't need to inform anyone about the maintenance, it doesn't get taken from benefits.

If you get accepted for carers, the benefits people will decide if you go onto UC and make the necessary changes.

Housing benefit and council tax benefit - go onto your council's website relevant departments, if you have an account log it's much easier, and let them both know about the change to benefits when they happen.

To see what you might be able to get, including the wtc/carers question, do a benefits check.

www.entitledto.co.uk/

Thankyou I didnt think that was right about been able to claim working tax for carers allowance, makes no odds to me I just didnt want to not declare anything to the appropriate people. Thankyou will I have to inform DWP, child tax and child benefit and my local council about the child maintenance and carers allowance? X

You don't need to inform income support or carers or tax credits about child maintenance

You do need to tell local council as "some" do take it into account with council tax benefit. I've lived in 3 different council areas and none have them have taken anything off me because of it though I still always tell them.

The maximum you can earn and still get Carers Allowance is £123 a week (after tax, national insurance and half your pension contribution). To get Carers Allowance you need to be looking after someone for 35 hours a week. This would be determined by the level of DLA or PIP the person gets. I think you would be more likely to get Child Tax credits than Working Tax Credits as you say you are not working?

As far as I know, Child Maintenance does not alter Carers Allowance or Child Tax Credits.

It is probably easiest to use the entitled to website and put in your figures.

And Carers Allowance is a taxable benefit.

Thankyou everyone, I wasnt wanting to claim working tax credits I was just confused as to why when I read somewhere it said you could get it as I thought this was incorrect. I will inform all relevant people of my claim for carers allowance once it's been awarded :) I just dont want to miss anyone and then be in trouble for not declaring the change I'm also confused in regards to universal credit as I thought if there was a change in circumstances you have to move to universal credit as ffwhatnext stated. Would they decide this and move me if needs be? I've heard people have gone weeks with no money and I cant really afford this right before Christmas 🙈 x

They will decide and let you know.
You can get an advance for the first payment - a loan for the maximum amount of benefits you would get and it gets repaid over a period of time, up to 50 weeks iirc.

Because you are already claiming, if they change you over to UC you can be fast-tracked so the disruption shouldn't be as long.

There is no reason for you to be switched to Uc if you already get Income support as carers allowance is not part of UC. Don't just leave it up to them to tell you what to do because people are often misinformed by DWP staff and end up being unnecessarily switched to UC. Go to CAB , research the rules and get a better off calculation done as you may be better off on UC.

And there is no such think as fast tracking for a UC claim - it takes one month and seven days from making the application, same for everyone.

Just realised that fast-track is for certain benefits under certain circumstances.

This gives you more details about carers allowance
www.entitledto.co.uk/help/Caring-overview-Universal-Credit

still no news from carers allowance, it will be 6 weeks monday i sent my claim off, can someone please tell me the process do they speak to the person im caring for? or will they just decide if im awarded it or not? i did phone them last week to check the progress of my application the man on the phone said it was still in the que to be processed.

I think they will contact the disabled person if it's likely to affect their benefit, so for example an older person who may be getting severe disability premium on their pension credit would lose that if someone starts claiming carers allowance for looking after them. Therefore they have to check that the disabled person is aware the claim is being made and is in agreement with it.

With carers allowance the person you are claiming for must be in receipt of certain benefits, if they have just claimed their application will need to be approved before yours can be - under special rules the process should be quicker, otherwise it can take months to get it approved, only then can your claim be processed (carers is then quick)

the person who i care for gets pip and isnt at pension age just yet :) wonder what is taking them so long?

Does the person get severe disability premium on another benefit like ESA maybe? if they live alone and claim a means tested benefit like income related jsa or esa then they are most likely getting sdp which will stop if you claim carers allowance.

no they dont get the premium as far as im aware x

I'm pretty sure you cannot claim wtc and carers allowance unless you are working alongside carers allowance even then I'm not sure it would work as the threshold for earning and claiming carers is about equal to working 16 hours and you would have to work over 16 hours as a lone parent to get wtc.

not quite. CA allows certain expenses/deductions such as childcare and 50% of pension contributions. You can therefore earn well above the £123/week earning threshold as pension contributions and/or.childcare will push you again under the earnings limit.