If you receive carers allowance and income support...

[tacal]

Hello

I have received a letter from the job centre asking me to attend a work focused interview.

I had to give up work while ds was being assessed and diagnosed in August. We still have various appointments to attend regularly and I have regular meetings with school, so for that reason I have not taken on a new job yet.

I do intend to go back to work but was waiting until ds's various appointments had finished and he was settled into school. I have been doing volunteer work so that I am still in the routine of working and have the experience on my cv but am still free to attend ds's appointments and support him. I am also studying so am definitely gaining experience to help with myfuture job hunting!

What should I expect from the work-focused interview? Will they make me feel awful for not having a paid job and tell me I need to get a job now? I am a bit worried about it.

have the rules changed for carers allowance? I asked about doing a p/t college course was only 1 day a week, I was told I couldn't do a college course at all if I wanted to carry on claiming carers allowance, I also asked about doing volunteer work and was told I would have benefits stopped if I did this. I even got someone else to phone carers allowance up two weeks ago to check as I wanted to do a taster course on relaxation to try on dd, still got told it's not allowed.
all your interview will be is someone asking you about hours you could work, help with your cv, etc.

mmm, I checked with income support people about volunteer work and open university course. But cant remember if I informed the carers allowance people. I had better phone them. My open university course is part time at home and I do it when ds is in bed. And volunteer work is only a couple of hours when ds is at school.

If they say it is not allowed I will have to have a big re-think.

Thanks for letting me know, I will let you know what they say to me.

I suppose the person at the meeting will be able to advise me on all this. I will be glad when I am back in paid employment to be honest!

I googled and it says

You may not get Carer’s Allowance if:

you’re in full-time education, and studying for 21 hours a week or more (this includes supervised study and things like coursework and experiments, not just time spent with a tutor)

I dont study for 21 hours so should be ok?

also found this:-

Howwillpart-­timevolunteering
affectmybenefit?
Carer’sAllowance
You still can get Carer’s Allowance if you do
volunteering in the UK and:
• care for a disabled person for at least 35
hours a week, and
• they get the right disability benefit.
If your volunteering takes you abroad for
over four weeks, it could affect your Carer’s Allowance

So am a bit confused by what you are saying davidsotherhalf. When I spoke to the income support people they were really positive about my volunteering and studying and looks like it doesnt break the rules for carers allowance. Am I missing something? I will still phone them to check as I am worried now!

again I volunteer and claim careers. my volunteering doesn't interfere with caring.

My work based interview was awful in the sense that I am already guilt stricken about the fact I don't "work" and it makes clear the lack of value the job centre puts on caring .

But thankfully short and it should be a long time before I need to go again.

thank you paperlantern for sharing your experience with me. I feel really guilty too that is why I am really worried about the meeting.