Carers Allowance, Mobility Allowances & Understanding Eligibility
My mother, who is in her mid-sixties, has had severe problems with her back for many years as well as asthma and, in the last five years, developing diabetes too. The back problem, within the last couple of years, has developed into a condition where the spinal discs slowly crumble over time, which, as well as being very painful, also severely limits mobility to the extent that she cannot walk any significant distance (e.g. from the house to the end of the street) without having serious pain and having to stop and take a rest, this is even with a walking stick. As a result, she is mostly housebound and even within the house simple things like going upstairs is becoming increasingly challenging.
Because of this, I try to do as much as possible around the house for her and take care of the normal daily duties like getting in shopping, preparing food, and looking after the garden and general upkeep of the house. The problem is as her mobility has become more limited, I find my time performing these duties on an average day increasing. Whilst I am perfectly happy to help as she has done so much for me, this does limit my ability to pursue employment opportunities, as I have been unemployed for some time, and even if such an opportunity were to come up, I have very serious concerns about whether I could comfortably leave my mother at home alone for an entire working day (plus transport time) considering her worsening mobility. Obviously, this makes things very difficult financially too.
Therefore, my question is: could I be eligible to receive a form of carer’s allowance (or similar) for the help I give her?, or alternatively might my mother be eligible to receive a benefit on account of her limited mobility?
Any advice greatly appreciated.
Because of this, I try to do as much as possible around the house for her and take care of the normal daily duties like getting in shopping, preparing food, and looking after the garden and general upkeep of the house. The problem is as her mobility has become more limited, I find my time performing these duties on an average day increasing. Whilst I am perfectly happy to help as she has done so much for me, this does limit my ability to pursue employment opportunities, as I have been unemployed for some time, and even if such an opportunity were to come up, I have very serious concerns about whether I could comfortably leave my mother at home alone for an entire working day (plus transport time) considering her worsening mobility. Obviously, this makes things very difficult financially too.
Therefore, my question is: could I be eligible to receive a form of carer’s allowance (or similar) for the help I give her?, or alternatively might my mother be eligible to receive a benefit on account of her limited mobility?
Any advice greatly appreciated.
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Comments
There will be other forum members who will probably be able to advise you more if you say exactly how old your mum is.
If your mother is under 65, she should apply for PIP asap and get specialist advice on completing the form. She will only qualify for the daily living component if she needs help with things like bathing, dressing and cooking. If she gets the mobility element, this will continue to be payable after she is 65.
If she is over 65, she is only eligible for attendance allowance, which does not include anything for mobility, only for care/supervision.
Actually, she is closer to late sixties, 68 to be exact.
Seems strange that the benefits seem to end over 65, when people are actually MORE likely to need them due to not having other sources of income nor being able to work and general declining health and mobility.
Yes it is. My ex husband has just had a stroke and he is 70 this year. The only benefit that he seems to be able to apply for is Attendance Allowance and he's not even sure that he'll qualify for the higher rate of that. He's having someone from Age UK visiting him this week to help him fill out the thirty odd page form. He's having to pay for carers to come in and bath him and cut his nails etc. He lives on his own and only has his state pension coming in so I hope he can get the full amount of Attendance Allowance to help out. He tries to be as independent as possible by trying to do everything for himself but without the use of a hand and foot it's very difficult for him.
It seems very unfair as although I have some difficulty getting about and doing some things for myself, I get ESA, PIP and a Severe Disability Premium (as I live alone and don't have a carer) and I'm 58 this year, but I am more mobile and can do more things for myself than he can. It makes me feel guilty for getting it. But I have been helping him out financially with my money by buying him aids and stuff when I can.
Secondly I don't know if you get JSA (or the equivalent) or if it was contributions based and has run out but it's worth mentioning that someone cannot receive both unemployment benefit and Carers Allowance. They are both income replacement payments and therefore it's one of the other.
Carers Allowance does protect your NI contributions though.
My Mum had a Doctor, not her own, come over some years ago and check her over for it.
Not really. 65 was the retirement age for men
The DWP consider that if anything happens when you are over 65 it's just part of getting old.
He was sent a letter to say that he was entitled to CA but he couldn't claim any money because he receives his State Pension and it creates an overlap of Benefits!!
This makes me seethe. Not the money, but the fact that you work all your life for your State Pension and then it is classed as a benefit.
Sorry for the rant. I just wanted to say that if your husband received a State Pension he is unlikely to get Carers Allowance.
You should definately get your Mum to apply for AA though.
All three are considered to be "income replacement benefits", so you are receiving a benefit income because something is preventing you from earning your own (whether that is because you are unemployed, looking after someone with a disability or past retirement age).
You receive those payments because you haven't got an income, but once you are awarded any one of them it counts as your income. So now you do have an income making you illegible for any other income replacement payment.
Although £250 a month hardly replaces the income the person would be earning if they weren't at home looking after someone.
The Government (via Local Authorities) can pay between £1,200 - £1,600 a week having a person looked after in a care home because of age or disability. Or pay a family member £240 month to do the same at home. And even then they will get out of paying it if they can.
I have started taking a look at the information about attendance allowance on Age UK http://www.ageuk.org.uk/money-matters/claiming-benefits/attendance-allowance/what-is-attendance-allowance/ I do think she would be eligible for this and even at the lower level it would be a massive help for her.
The thing is, she really doesn't like filling in long forms and is very independent so if she does it herself she is very likely to minimise or gloss over the issues she has. I noticed the Age UK site said they might be able to send a worker round to help her with filling in the form for the best possible chance of qualifying, this seems a good idea to me, but has anyone else had experience of doing this?
The only other concern to address before applying is would my living at the property with my mum affect the application e.g. could they say I am providing the necessary care and hence the attendance allowance isn't needed or similar?
The best one if benefitsandwork.co.uk and the other is youreable.co.uk the former is a yearly subscription, but is worth the money.
As a former age concern/ age uk advice worker, I can promise you they will be very used to people like your mum minimising their problems & know how to ask the right questions to get the info they need
Secondly as far as the law goes, it only matters that your mum NEEDs help; whether she GETS help is not relevant in terns of the application
"Earnings replacement benefits" end at 65 because that is the age at which people can get state pension and/or pension credit instead.