Benefits and Work has today published a 23 page members’ “Guide to claiming carer’s allowance and challenging overpayments”.
Carer’s Allowance has been very much in the news in recent months as the scandal of the DWP snatching back a quarter of a billion pounds from carers continues to grow.
The National Audit Office has launched an investigation into the DWP’s failure to warn claimants whom the department knew had gone over the earnings limit, instead leaving them to build up massive overpayments.
And the Liberal Democrats have said that they would not pursue carers for old overpayments.
The Benefits and Work guide aims to help people make an effective claim for carer’s allowance, avoid overpayments where possible and, if the DWP say they have occurred, understand how to challenge them.
The guide covers:
- Carer's Allowance (CA) qualifying criteria
- Backdating your Carer’s Allowance claim
- How to make a claim for Carer’s Allowance
- The carer element of Universal Credit (UC)
- Carer’s Allowance and other benefits
- Other entitlements as a carer
- Carer's Allowance overpayments: what's the problem?
- Duty to disclose
- The three decisions
- The entitlement decision
- The overpayment decision
- The recovery decision
- Civil penalties
- Will a Carer’s Allowance overpayment affect my other benefits?
- What methods can the DWP use to recover an overpayment?
- What are your options if you cannot afford to pay?
Members can download the guide from the PIP Guides page or from the AA/DLA Guides page.
