Hi,

Just wondering if anyone can help me with this or find a way around it.

I have some clients .... a couple, their daughter lives with them and is severly mentally impaired. The wife cares for the daughter full time and claims carers allowance. The Wife (as appointee) has the daughters benefits (LT ICB & DLA) paid into her bank acccount.

Does the money paid for the daughter, into Mrs's bank account get included in their income when working out their entitlement to MTB?

I am calculating CTB of over £300.00 but don't want to send them on a wild goose chase filling in forms if it's not worth it.

Is there any way to have this money excluded from their income? All of it and more is actually being used to help them care and support her.

Any help or advice would be great.

Thanks.

The money paid fof the daughters LT ICB and DLA is not counted as income for the mother, simply providing evidence of this to the LA would be sufficient to show it is not her income.

One final thought, it that if in doubt it is always better to claim and deal with any issues like this through the formal appeals process if necessary.

Initially that's what I thought but I read on another post, that money paid to an appointee is legally theirs.

http://www.rightsnet.org.uk/dc/dcboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=100&topic_id=3832&mesg_id=3832&listing_type=search

I agree with you so I'm going with that.

Thanks.

Hi there,
I think there is some confusion here between what is capital and what is income...

If the money remains in the appointee's bank account it is her capital... that part I am happy with.

If the money is paid into the bank account it will be treated as the claimant's income still and not the appointee's. Otherwise this would create a daft situation where the claimant could deprive themselves of all income by giving it to an appointee and increase their own benefit entitlement.

The post mentioned above is about how to treat the capital, but what was initailly asked by the first questioner was about how to regard the income and hence the entitlement to CTB. Please feel free to correct me if I have read the first mail wrongly.

Hope this helps

Cheers

You were thinking right when reading my post.

I think I am mis-reading the mentioned post as I cant see that is specifies capital or income. Just money in an account in the appointees name leagally being theirs.

But obviously I'm a bit unsure on the subject so that's why I needed the help.

Think I get it now though.

Thanks