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Carers allowance after a death
Son claimed CA but mother died 20 weeks after CA awarded . Son has been refused run on of 8 weeks as he had not been entitled to CA for 22 weeks, is this correct
What?
Sec.70(1A) of the Contributions and Benefits Act says:
(1A) A person who was entitled to an allowance under this section immediately before the death of the severely disabled person referred to in subsection (1) shall continue to be entitled to it, even though he is no longer engaged in caring for a severely disabled person (and the requirements of subsection (1)(a) and (c) are not satisfied), until–
(a) the end of the week in which he ceases to satisfy any other requirement as to entitlement to the allowance; or
(b) the expiry of the period of eight weeks beginning with the Sunday following the death (or beginning with the date of death if the death occurred on Sunday), whichever occurs first.
Nothing about time scales that I can see here.
This could be a nasty scenario. Assuming the cared-for person died in hospital, and the CA claim had been in place for less than 22 weeks, then a hospital stay can not count as a temporary break for CA purposes. Therefore CA should end immediately on going into hospital. DWP would presumably then argue that there can be no run-on from a death that is subsequent to the CA award ending. I don’t know whether there is a good counter-argument.