Severe disability premium and carers allowance

I spoke to a really helpful guy at the benefits office today and never knew they exist!
Anyway I was enquiring about applying for severe disability premium as my husband and myself both get enhanced rates of PIP and we don't have anyone claiming carers allowance for us. He told me a way we would be £68.40 a week better off and I wanted to make sure what he told me is correct before I make changes to our claim.
He told me to claim the severe disability premiums couple rate and carers allowance for each other. He said our ESA would get reduce by the carers allowance but we would get an added carers premium of £34.20 each top up. So that would make us £68.40 better off. I said to him that I thought you can't claim severe disability premium if you claim carers allowance but he said that is correct but as we would be claiming carers allowance for each other and live at the same address we can do it that way. Is this correct?

Abi wrote: I spoke to a really helpful guy at the benefits office today and never knew they exist!
Anyway I was enquiring about applying for severe disability premium as my husband and myself both get enhanced rates of PIP and we don't have anyone claiming carers allowance for us. He told me a way we would be £68.40 a week better off and I wanted to make sure what he told me is correct before I make changes to our claim.
He told me to claim the severe disability premiums couple rate and carers allowance for each other. He said our ESA would get reduce by the carers allowance but we would get an added carers premium of £34.20 each top up. So that would make us £68.40 better off. I said to him that I thought you can't claim severe disability premium if you claim carers allowance but he said that is correct but as we would be claiming carers allowance for each other and live at the same address we can do it that way. Is this correct?

Hi A,

To be entitled to The Severe Disability Premium (SDP) you or your partner must satisfy all of the following:

Be receiving the Care component of Disability Living Allowance (middle or higher rate) or Personal Independence Payments Daily Living (either rate)

Which it seems that you do.

live alone (there are exceptions to this rule)

You don't live alone, but you fulfill the "exception" as you and your partner are both in receipt of The PIP Daily Living Component.

no one else must be getting carer's allowance for looking after you.

From what you state in your post, no one else is receiving Carers Allowance for providing care for you or your partner.

There is a couple rate if both of you qualify.

See : ESA Premiums

If you fulfill the above, another prerequisite for "Payment" of The SDP (or any of the ESA Premiums) is that you can pass the means test for payment of Income Related (IR) ESA with respect to capital, assets, savings, household income, and any hours worked by your partner :

Asset rule for ESA(IR)

24 hour work rule for ESA(IR)

To assess your entitlement and potential payment of The SDP, you may be required to fill in an : IS10 Form.

You may also be required to fill in an ESA 3 Form :

Sample ESA 3 Form.

If you are entitled to The SDP (couple rate) payment of this should be backdated to the start date of the PIP Daily Living Award(s).

If you are in receipt of Contribution Based (CB) ESA, you cannot also be paid Carers Allowance (CA), as they are classed as "overlapping benefits".

However, you may have what is called an "underlying entitlement" to CA, which would mean that you would be paid The Carer Premium. (Currently £34.20/Week (each) )

See : Benefit Rates 2014/15

Even though you are aware that you will not receive full CA, you would still both have to make a claim to The Carer Unit for CA :

www.gov.uk/carers-allowance/how-to-claim

If you are to make a claim, you should do so ASAP, as The Carer Premium can only be backdated for a 3 months period, even if the PIP Daily Living Awards were given prior to that.

You should then receive notification that you are not entitled to CA, and on providing the notification to the ESA Department that deals with your ESA payments, they should then pay The Carer Premium instead. (if entitled to IR ESA)

You may want to : Contact the Carer's Allowance Unit, who are generally pretty helpful, and they should explain how it works for you.

So, "Yes", it is possible that you can receive both the couple rate of The SDP, and The Carer Premium for you and your partner paid as IR ESA top-ups to your ESA.

You can receive the Carer Premium for providing care for your partner, and they can also receive it for providing care for you.

If you are not currently in receipt of The SDP and Carer Premiums, but find that you are entitled to payment of them, it may well be that you are financially better off by more than the £68.40 that you quote.

To be entitled to CA/Carer Premium, you must be providing at least 35 hours/week care.

You should be aware that questions "may" be asked if the actions involved in you providing care for your partner, or indeed your partner providing care for you are in direct contradiction to the disabilities and resulting limitations that gave you and your partner your PIP/ESA awards.

e.g. A person who has substantial physical disabilities/limitations themselves claiming CA for providing 35 hours/week care for someone else, which involved physical activities, etc, etc.

It is however quite feasible that someone with Mental Health issues could provide physical care for a partner with physical limitations, and the partner with the Physical Health issues could in turn provide Care/Support back in the form of prompting, supervising, comforting, etc, etc.

See also : Carers UK. CA

These online benefits calculators may give you a better guide to any entitlement :

Benefits Calculator

Benefits Calculator

It is impossible for me to offer totally accurate advice on what is best for you and your partner within the obvious restrictions of a Forum, and it is always best to seek face to face advice where they will have access to all your personal and financial details.

Organisations like : The CAB, and : AGE UK (For over 50's) do offer Benefits Checks, and can even help with application forms etc. :

Where to get advice

Or you could put Welfare Rights/Advice into Google for your Town/Postcode.

Hope this helps.

bro58

Hi,

So from what I was originally told but two people at the benefits (what I stated in this post previous), I'm now being told we can't claim SDP if we are both claiming carers for each other. We have both been told we are entitled to carers allowance but haven't recieved payment yet. I was told yesterday that we can't claim SDP couple rate but our Income related ESA won't be reduced by the carers payment. Haven't had anything in writing yet, but this has left me confused now as I thought our IR ESA would get reduced by carers allowance. Which way is correct?

Abi wrote: Hi,

So from what I was originally told but two people at the benefits (what I stated in this post previous), I'm now being told we can't claim SDP if we are both claiming carers for each other. We have both been told we are entitled to carers allowance but haven't recieved payment yet. I was told yesterday that we can't claim SDP couple rate but our Income related ESA won't be reduced by the carers payment. Haven't had anything in writing yet, but this has left me confused now as I thought our IR ESA would get reduced by carers allowance. Which way is correct?

Hi A,

Sorry to leave you until last.

A severely disabled couple both in receipt of MR/HR Care DLA or Daily Living PIP can receive 2 x Carer Premium (CP) (£34.20 each. £68.40 in total,) for providing care for each other, AND The SDP couple rate, as they are not classed as living alone due to both being in receipt of MR/HR Care DLA or DL PIP, and even though they have an underlying entitlement to The CA, they are actually being paid The CP.

See this extract :

"It is possible to receive both the carer and severe disability premiums – for example, a disabled couple who provide a substantial amount of care for each other could receive both."

From page 19 of this document :

www.ageuk.org.uk/Documents/EN-GB/Factshe...uage=en-GB?dtrk=true

See also their CA factsheet :

www.ageuk.org.uk/Documents/EN-GB/Factshe...uage=en-GB?dtrk=true

I have personal experience of this, as I know of a couple who are both in receipt of HR Care DLA, they receive 2 x CP and The SDP as IR ESA top ups.

bro58

Hi A,

The best way to think of this is that being entitled to "Premiums" increases the amount that the government state that you need to live on as opposed to a comparable person who does not have an entitlement to any "Premiums"

In the case of someone that is "Entitled" to "Premiums" this amount is set as a Minimum Disability Income Guarantee.

Basically, if your total household income including CB ESA, CA, etc, but not DLA or PIP, falls below that "Guaranteed Income" the shortfall must be "Paid" as IR ESA premiums.

If your applicable household income exceeds that "Guaranteed Income", even though you may have an "Entitlement" to "Premiums" their will be no "Payment" of the "Premiums"

So one may have an "Entitlement" but "Payment" depends on your financial/personal circumstances.

Although to do with The EDP only, I was explaining something similar : Here.

bro58