carers allowence

hi and good morning to everyone
I gave up work 9 months ago to look after my wife and son who are both in receipt of the high care component of DLA and at that time I was told by the job centre adviser that because I have an occupational pension of £480 per month that I would not qualify for the carers allowance. I have been on the phone this morning to the carers unit and been told by them that they disregard a personal pension and that I would qualify for the carers allowance. I think that what has happened here is that the job centre have mis-informed me and I have now missed out on 9 months carers allowance and that money would have helped as I still have a mortgage to pay and we are all struggling to pay the bills.
I have also read on the carersuk website that there is more than £100m being unclaimed so I think it is a disgrace that the jobcentre are telling people that they don't qualify when in fact they do.

If you have proof that the JCP adviser gave you incorrect advice with regard to your claim for Carer's Allowance, this is known as misdirection and is tantamount to maladministration. Please see the document entitled Financial Redress for Injustice Resulting from Maladministration.

If you are able to demonstrate that maladministration has occurred, you may be entitled to reclaim the arrears of CA from the date the wrong advice was given, together with financial redress to recompense for extra costs incurred and/or sums to recognise the impact of poor service.

Thanks for the reply. We were going through a redundancy programme and part of that was a jobcentre adviser came to see us and this person mentioned that if you have an income of more than £100 per week then you can't claim for any benefits. I don't know who the adviser was or where she came from, but I did tell her that I would have a pension of more than £100 per week and she said that that would still be an income. I have been afraid to go to the jobcentre to claim benefits in case it affects my wife and son's disability allowances. My wife is on incapacity benefit and high rate DLA and my son in on income support and high rate DLA and I'm now at my wits end as to what to do.
Is there any advice you can give apart for your earlier comments, and do you know if my personal pension would stop me getting carers allowance.
Many thanks

Unfortunately we cannot offer advice to individuals about a specific benefits problem under any circumstances. To give accurate and reliable advice about a specific benefits problem, we'd need to know a great deal about your income, savings, health, household arrangements and more. To give advice without all this information would seriously risk misinforming you.

If you need specific benefits advice, you can download our FREE, 12 page guide HERE.

Hi denise,I am in receipt of HRM &MRC and IB.My husband has an occupational pension & has just applied for carers allowance.All it took was filing out a form on line & a phone call from them to confirm details.His occ pension is not classed as income but carers allowance is taxable & we have just rung HMRC to get has tax code changed.We got it backdated 3 months. Hope this info is of help.It does not affect my benefits.