Substantial Minority Carer

Hi All,

Looking for some advice/thoughts/pointers.

I’m aware that in some circumstances people who are carers for less than 35 hours each week can be entitled to Income Support if it is agreed that they are still ‘regularly and substantially engaged’ in caring for a person in receipt of (in my case) Attendance Allowance.  What I’m looking for is anything which defines this further.

To explain, I have a 60 year old client with an 88 year old mother.  They live in different areas of the UK.  Until now, my client has been receiving Incapacity Benefit for some years.  Due to his mother’s increasing health needs a private care arrangement was put in place where my client’s mother has a carer going into her home 3 weeks in 4 and my client travels to live with her for the 4th week.  There can also be variations to this arrangement to suit my client and the carer but the average is he goes down one week in 4.

No-one claims Carer’s Allowance for his mum but he won’t qualify for this for at least 2 weeks in 4.

Now - you’ve guessed it - he is up for re-assessment to ESA.  He isn’t convinced that he’ll qualify for this (I’ve not gone massively into this as we’ll discuss it when he receives his ESA50 form in the next few weeks) and is looking at his options.  He would struggle to maintain a JSA claim and wouldn’t qualify one week in 4.

Does anyone think there’s any possibility of making a case for Income Support? 

Mairi

There is a new definition of ‘regularly and substantially caring’ for Universal Credit which replaces the Carer’s Allowance route.  It’s defined as qualifying for CA, or would do so if it wasn’t for earnings.  There doesn’t though seem to be any reference to underlying CA entitlement.  There is also going to be a ‘regularly and substantially caring’ test in Pension Credit which will replace the Carer’s Allowance route but we don’t yet know if it will be the same.  Whether IS will follow the same interpretation is unclear.

Thanks Gareth.

Doesn’t look good then. 

Mairi

For “regularly and substantially caring” in income support see R(IS) 8/02.

The biggest problem may be actually getting some money whilst you argue with the DWP about the merits of the case.

Reegulation 4ZA(4) of the Income Support (General) Regulations provides that a person who falls within a prescribed category in Schedule 1B for any day in a benefit week shall fall within that category for the whole of that week. In addition, a person who was regularly and substantially caring for a person getting MRCC/HRCC or AA (paragraph 4 of Schedule 1B) will fall within paragraph 5 of Schedule 1B for a period of 8 weeks from the date paragraph 4 ceased to apply.

Arguably, if the DWP accept that on a week by week basis, your client is regularly and substantially caring for a disabled person, a combination of paragraphs 4 and 5 could apply.

This combination works for some clients who have disabled children at residential college during term times, but whether the DWP would accept that living with and caring for a disabled person 1 week in 4 constitutes “regularly and substantially caring” is probably a lot more debatable

Thanks sovietleader.

I knew we’d have a problem with getting my client money while we argued the case with the DWP which is why I suggested to him that I posted it really.

Sadly, no-one’s disagreeing with my thoughts that it probably wouldn’t fly because of the gaps between his caring stints.  I was hoping there was something I hadn’t thought of.

The annoying thing is that when he set up this arrangement he did it in the belief that he would move from Incapacity Benefit to Pension Credit but then the government moved the goalposts about the qualifying age for Pension Credit and the qualifying criteria for ‘sickness benefits’.

I haven’t yet discussed with him the realistic chances of him qualifying for ESA as we’re going to do that when he receives his ESA50 - hopefully there’s something he’s not told me yet waiting in the wings..

Mairi