UC and 30 hours childcare

[Arthurnewyorkcity]

Hi,
I work full time but my family receives UC as my child is disabled and gets the severe disability premium. We also have a younger child (no sen). dad doesn't work as is full time carer.
Currently we get carer element. However I have discovered if we claim carers allowance we'd qualify for the 30 hours which would support our youngest. I am aware this is deducted £ for £ from uc and treated as income. Therefore, we've never bothered to claim it. If we weren't on UC we would claim CA and we will likely not qualify for UC in 18 months as my pay will likely then be over the threshold.
On reading about carers allowance, it implies the person (my child) would lose their disability benefits?
Is there any point doing this when we get the up to 85% back currently?
Our daughters nursery bill is 800 odd and we get 600 something back at present. I am thinking if she got 30hours, the top up from us needed would be much less as she goes 3 days a week.
Thank you for your help.

theres a limit on how much you can earn for carers allowance so it may be that your entilted to it anyway.

My dh would claim carers allowance, not me. He has no income.

I think there’s been some confusion. It’s my understanding that an adult receiving certain disability benefits may lose some if a person becomes a carer for them.
For a child you would still receive DLA, Carers Element and the disabled child element of UC ( I have a disabled child and have previously claimed CA )
Dad should claim CA as it protects his NI and pension in the future.

If they're on certain 'legacy' benefits and have a Severe Disability Premium that is true. However that group are now being moved to UC.

85% of your total bill might work out better than the 30 ‘free’ hours. Most nurseries can’t afford to give the 30 hours without charging anything extra. We were asked to pay for meals and nappies etc at about £15 per day which they were honest about in saying it was more than it cost but they needed the money to be able to offer the hours.

@WildCountry thank you. That'd what I was thinking, but I thought you could get the funded hours and UC? Just not the tax free and UC? Dad receives child benefit so I think his NI is protected?

Thank you all for your kind, helpful replies

CA gives you class 1 stamps, CB gives you class 3. To be honest I’m not entirely sure of the difference.
I know from personal experience claiming CA doesn’t lower the benefits from UC or DLA. I still got the disabled child element, carers element and carers allowance. But mine was a single claim rather than a joint one. I now work at DWP child DLA - children don’t lose any of the UC or DLA entitlement just because someone is claiming carers allowance for them. I got the funded hours plus 85% back on any extra I had to pay ( I used more than the 30 hours ). A carer is classed as employed, which is why they get the class 1 stamps and the money is deducted from UC, if Dad claimed it then you would be entitled to the funded hours.

Class 3 NI conts basically only count for the State Pension.

Class 1 can help with other things though the rules for NI benefits like New Style ESA/JSA can be quite involved.

On reading about carers allowance, it implies the person (my child) would lose their disability benefits?

People don't lose their disability benefits completely when someone claims carers, but some people get premiums that can be lost from benefits like ESA.

OP if your husband is getting the UC carer element, that is effectively the same as getting Carer's Allowance as both are 'specified benefits' in the Free Childcare regulations -so the UC Carer Element will qualify you for the 30 hours childcare for working parents (and your husband doesn't have to claim Carer's Allowance).

If you have any additional childcare needs on top of the 30 hours free childcare (eg you use 40 hours of childcare), then you can use UC for any extra hours above the 30 free hours.

It's correct that Carer's Allowance gives class 1 NI credits whereas UC and Child Benefit are class 3.

Class 1 credits can go towards more benefits but as a PP says the rules can be quite complicated (and may change under welfare reform plans) but class 3 just goes to State Pension.

Thank you so much. I always see so much benefit bashing on mumsnet but you have all been nothing but kind and helpful. Does UC pay towards the top ups needed? Or just additional hours? My daughter attends 30 hours, but I am wondering if uc pays any of the fees needed?

I think i may too late to apply now and I left it, as I was a bit anxious I'd mess it up. We are very fortunate that we are paying just under a couple hundred by the time uc pays the bill. I guess it also makes us more likely to be entitled when childcare element is high. However, like previously said my pay will go to 36k starting next year so I highly doubt we'll qualify for uc (understandably) so my dh will claim CA then. We will have 1 year left of childcare to fund. I was very fortunate 5 years ago that when my eldest attended nursery, there were no top up fees for him. I didn't realise how fortunate we were.

If by top ups you mean things like snacks and wipes, I don't think UC would pay if the top ups are itemised clearly & separately to the childcare hours cost on the invoice.

If the nursery just issues an invoice which includes total costs (not separated out), maybe UC would pay