UC advice of giving up job to claim - don’t want to be classed as intentionally unemployed

[Goldenhairbrush]

How do you go about this ? Can claim carers allowance and be a full time carer but do I need to give up and claim and leave it a certain amount of time before putting in the UC claim ? Or can I quit and do both at the same time And it’s allowed as I wouldn’t have a requirement to work due to being a carer?

The last thing I need is to do it the wrong way and it doesn’t work out so any advice very welcome

And if I do have to claim carers first how long for ? 1 week ? 2 weeks? A month?

If you claim carers allowance it could take up to 12 weeks to be awarded then you get the money backdated. However you can make a claim for UC now and on the UC application you declare that you are a carer and will get the carers element of UC from the start and so should not be asked to look for work based on that. You can also claim Carers allowance but that is deducted from UC pound for pound so you are no better off by claiming it but it does have some advantages in that you get credited with a better class of NI contributions and you get an Xmas bonus. So if you made a UC claim today you should get the carers element ( around £168.81 ) from the start then whenever carers allowance is awarded you would get that. If you are giving up a job now to claim UC then please make sure you apply after your last wages have been paid, otherwise this may cancel out any UC, unless you think you would qualify even with the wages.

Thank you that’s so helpful. It’s a hard decision I don’t want to do anything wrong but current situation just isn’t sustainable so going to go for it and hopefully it’ll relieve some stress!

@Goldenhairbrush

Thank you that’s so helpful. It’s a hard decision I don’t want to do anything wrong but current situation just isn’t sustainable so going to go for it and hopefully it’ll relieve some stress!

Would it be an option just to do very part time ? You can still claim the Uc carers element no matter how many hours you earn, and can earn up to £`128 a week and still claim carers allowance. Not sure how familiar you are with how Uc works but if you have a child on the claim then a certain amount of earnings is disregarded so if you can work even a few hours you could be significantly better off. Is it a disabled child you will be caring for? If so make sure the disabled child element is added to your claim also.

At the moment no but maybe in things improve in the future that could be an option 🤞
Yes it’s for a child. I’ve dragged it out as long as possible but with things getting worse not better it’s just impossible. No family nearby or anything to support either so really tricky

@Goldenhairbrush

At the moment no but maybe in things improve in the future that could be an option 🤞 Yes it’s for a child. I’ve dragged it out as long as possible but with things getting worse not better it’s just impossible. No family nearby or anything to support either so really tricky

Aah ok that sounds difficult. There should not be any problems giving up work and claiming Uc as a carer as long as your child has DLA in place. On your Uc claim just make sure you have a standard element for yourself, child element( s), disabled child element, carers element and rent element if you rent. Check all these elements are on your first statement. DLA and child benefit are then paid separately as well as carers allowance once awarded, but as I explained previously you are not better off by claiming carers allowance as it comes straight off your UC again but it may help with budgeting to have that paid weekly. There may also be carers grants etc available through your local authority and having a disabled child on your claim will mean you will not be benefit capped.