Can different people claim Carers Element and Carers Allowance for the same cared for person?

Just pondering something at the moment. We’ve got a two people, both claiming UC separately, who have some children together who have split, amicably, and there’s a question mark over Carers Element and Carers Allowance. This question has come up because one of their children has very recently been awarded DLA at Middle Rate Care and both parents could argue they provide 35 hours of care per week for the relevant child.

Parent 1 is about to start work and will earn too much to qualify for CA but could qualify for the Carer Element in their award. The children live with them.

Parent 2 lives a short distance away and has some health trouble of their own but likely not enough to qualify for LCWRA but possibly LCW (something to be explored further). They could also claim the Carer Element but aren’t that fussed about the extra money more about being hassled by the JobCentre as they’re both unwell and want to look after their children. They could claim CA as they appear to meet all the criteria.

I know that two people cannot claim the Carer Element for the same child but is there any reason one person can’t get the Carer Element and the other the Carers Allowance (in this case Parent 1 the Carer Element, and Parent 2 the CA)?

Following on from that, if they can do that, would Parent 2 be placed in the no work related conditions group due to claiming CA?

I’m not immediately seeing a reason why not but equally it feels a bit like gaming the system slightly so surely the DWP would have put a block on doing that somewhere in the legislation that I’m just missing?

They did indeed think of that. See s.70(7ZA) Social Security Contributions and Benefits Act 1992.

Nuts, seemed too good to be true and so it proved! Thanks Elliot, clearly I need to spend more time reading SSCBA!