Carers allowance and universal credit

[Kelly230]

Hi, I’ve been a member for a while but haven’t posted for a long time, but it is still my go to place for info because it’s so much more useful than ringing dwp who always end up confusing me lol.
Anyway to the question! My friend has recently made a claim for carers allowance, they have been on universal credit for a while, he has received his most recent statement and it state they have taken off carers allowance even though it’s not in payment yet, but have not added on the carers premium, can this be right as he is now losing £269 as he’s not yet getting carers and not getting the premium. I don’t know how it works but it just doesn’t seem right they can take off carers when it’s not even in payment yet, and surely if they do then shouldn’t Universal credit put on the premium from the date they start taking the carers off? Any help would be good

[nukecad]

It sounds as though CA has been awarded and UC have been informed of that before you friend has got the letter about it.

How it should work is that the income from CA should be deducted £ for £ from UC, and the Carer Element should be added to UC.

As you are no doubt aware they are keener at taking things off than adding things.

It sounds as if the deduction for CA has been made even though it hasn't been paid yet, it may still be to come as backpay.
But they haven't put the Carer Element onto UC yet, that may be backpaid as well.

So it's probably just the first month and will settle down next month.

Your friend could call the UC helpline,or put a query on the payment section of their journal, to ask what is happening.

PS. If it's just a question of timing like I say above then in this situation your friend can ask for an advance of UC if they are struggling.
As long as they only ask for the equivalent of the UC Carer Element then it should be recovered from any backpay to come.

[Kelly230]

Thanks for the info, I thought it would be something like that. I will let my friend know I didn’t know you could ask for an advance of the carers element this could be very helpful, I guess it just came at a bad time as my friend is moving house at the end of the month and needed every penny he was getting and now he’s been left a bit short. He has a budgeting advance he is paying off, he has got £100 left to pay. He was thinking of paying it all off and applying for another one to help him with removal expenses and for white goods. Have you heard of anyone doing this? I’m worried he might spend £100 paying it off and then be told he can’t have another one. He is single with two children do you know the maximum he can apply for? Sorry for all the questions, he’s just really stressed at the moment because he’s worried he’s not going to be able to pay his rent in advance. Thanks again

[nukecad]

With UC you can ask for an advance when you first claim, or when you have a change of circumstances that means you will get increased benefit, such as a Carer Element, in future.

Your friend may qualify for the second one, but there are some funny rules about timing, eg:

a Universal Credit Advance (change of circumstance) cannot be considered if the claimant is requesting a change of circumstances advance within 3 working days before the end of the assessment period

I don't know much about budgeting advances in UC, but this Citizens Advice page says it:
https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/be...eting-advance/

You can't get a budgeting advance if you or your partner are still paying off a previous budgeting advance.

So that would say you can reapply once you have paid off the existing one.
That link also tells you the min and max you can apply for. (£812 max if you have children).

I assume that like legacy benefits UC budgeting advances are discretionary, so if you get one or not and how much for is variable.
(I know that in legacy benefits there is a set amount for budgeting loans each year, so it's best to apply in April when the pot is full).