Income Support overpayment / Carer’s Allowance

Hi,

I am assisting a customer who has had her claim for Income Support terminated and she has been overpaid.

The customer claimed IS as she has a severely disabled daughter.  The daughter turned 18 in November 2011 and the claim was terminated 28.05.12.  The customer now needs to claim Carer’s Allowance before she can make a new claim for IS.  As Carer’s Allowance can only be backdated 3 months she will have a gap in her IS entitlement and a sizable overpayment.

The customer never claimed Carer’s Allowance before as she was advised it would make no difference to the amount of benefit she would receive.

Due to the delay in the DWP cancelling the claim does the customer have any form of underlying entitlement?

Any thoughts or advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

Allan

Hello

You don’t have to have CA to claim IS as a carer. You can just claim IS on it’s own as long as the cared for is getting middle or high care and mum is ‘regularly and substantially engaged’ in providing care (schedule 1B, para 4 of the IS regs)

I think you appeal the decision to stop the IS award on the basis that the decision was incorrect because she did still meet a qualifying criteria for IS.

What I don’t understand is on what basis were they paying IS up till May? Was it as a carer, or was the mother claiming on other grounds? Or is there a typo in your post and has the daughter turned 8 rather than 18 and so lost the ability to claim as a lone parent?

Jane

Jane OP - 16 July 2012 11:30 AM

Hello

You don’t have to have CA to claim IS as a carer. You can just claim IS on it’s own as long as the cared for is getting middle or high care and mum is ‘regularly and substantially engaged’ in providing care (schedule 1B, para 4 of the IS regs)

I think you appeal the decision to stop the IS award on the basis that the decision was incorrect because she did still meet a qualifying criteria for IS.

What I don’t understand is on what basis were they paying IS up till May? Was it as a carer, or was the mother claiming on other grounds? Or is there a typo in your post and has the daughter turned 8 rather than 18 and so lost the ability to claim as a lone parent?

Jane

Thanks Jane,

I called the DWP and was advised the customer must claim CA before making a new claim for IS.  I think I’ve been misinformed.

The date the claim was terminated coincided with the date the customer’s daughter turned 18.  When I spoke to the lady in the call centre she advised the claim must have been based on the customer having a disabled dependant and she now needed to claim CA to reclaim IS.  However, I’ve checked the Diability Handbook and there is no provision for claiming IS on these grounds.

I will be contacting the DWP again to confirm the exact cancellation reason as their first response makes no sense.

Many thanks.

Allan

Hi,

I would appeal the decision to stop the IS and make a new claim as that will get her paid quicker. It might help to refer to DMG chapter 20 para 20116 when making the new claim, sometimes showing the DWP the bit of the DMG that backs up what you are telling them to do is the quickest way of getting them to do what you want.

I find that the DWP often misadvise people about this way of qualifying for IS.

Jane