There is currently a brouhaha concerning people having to repay their carer’s allowance because they exceeded the earnings threshold. I have the opposite problem. I am a carer for an autistic adult son and, depending on his circumstances, I sometimes work, and sometimes stay at home and claim carer’s allowance. I did some work over Christmas and, as always, informed the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), as the pay took me over the earnings threshold. I made a new claim in January when work ended. Four months later, it still hasn’t made a decision, and I am having to survive on a credit card, racking up debt I will struggle to repay. I could weep.
JN, Fareham, Hampshire
Carer’s allowance can be claimed by anyone who spends at least 35 hours a week looking after someone with a disability and earns less than £151 a week. It is now worth £81.90 a week and, at the time of writing, you calculated you were owed more than £1,300 – a lifesaving sum in your circumstances.
