Help please! Anyone work in CAb or similar?!

[Wildmamma]

My cousin is married to a man who is terminally ill.
His mobility is now much reduced and has pain .
He is refusing to let carers in and she is thinking of giving her job up . They live in a rented flat . Housing association .

She is thinking of giving her job up as he is not safe to be left.
My view is to ask for leave . But in this case they will have no money to pay the rent at all.
I think they get dla and carers allowance.

apart from forcing acceptance of carers.. which may not be possible ( v difficult situation )
her options are.

give up her job .. would she get benefits.. rent paid ?
or
take leave .. could she get temporary financial support.

the family is close to breakdown and they have limited energy to even investigate this so I said I would try to find out.
i am aware they need nursing and social care . Am work on this but this work issue is pressing also .
any advice on what to do . Who to ask . And any help they wd get much appreciated.

I used to be a macmillan benefits advisor working through CAB.
What benefits they are entitled to will depend on age.
If at least one of them is under state pension age ( assuming she is) then it would be Universal credit they would claim as long as savings are under 16k.
If he is not on highest rates of DLA for the care component then if he is terminally ill with a prognosis of less than 6-12 months then they should ask his consultant/ Nuse specialist or GP if they will issue a Ds1500 form. This would then get him the highest rate of DLA although he may need to switch to PIP depending on age.
If she does need to give up her job and go onto Universal credit then to be honest the amount they would get is not bad as there would be extra elements for him not being able to work and a carers element for her and a rent element towards their rent. Carers allowance would continue to be paid seperately and then deducted from Universal credit. If she is currently claiming carers allowance then she cannot be working many hours currently as you cannot claim carers allowance if earning over £132 a week.
If she had to give up work then they would also likely get help with council tax support as long as savings under 16k.

Sorry I forgot to add if they private rent and their rent amount is higher than the local housing allowance, then their rent element may not fully cover their rent.
They should contact adult social services through their local council for an assessment of needs and carers assessment. This will assess whether he is eligible for carers and there are sometimes carers grants that can be claimed also.

Thank you so much . Ive just found a gov web site too.
They ate both under 65.

She reduced her working hours significantly but is think she must give it up totally now.
She is concerned that she will be seen to have given her job up ? And not be given any help for 6 weeks due to this ?

Would she be penalised for giving her job up to lool after him please?

She will not be penalised as long he is in receipt of at least middle rate care component of DLA and she can then be classed as a carer for him.

They should make a claim for Universal credit as soon as possible as long as savings are not over 16k. She should declare herself a carer on the application, and he should hand in sick notes and wait to be assessed for work capability. If a Ds1500 form can be supplied by a health professional then he would get the Limited capability for work element added to the Universal credit claim pretty much straight away, otherwise it is a case of waiting to be assessed. They will need to show rent tenancy agreement to Universal credit if private rent. UC can take a bit of setting up initially but once set up is fairly straightforward. CAB usually have a team of people called the help to claim team who will help people to set up a UC claim and support them to their first payment , check all elements are correct etc. I would strongly advise using them.

Thanks so much .

Apply for council tax support. You apply to your local council.