Here is the answer to a query about older person’s benefits; and how one person’s claims can affect someone else’s
Pension Credit, Housing Benefit and Council Tax Reduction are all benefits based on a what-you’ve-got-vs-what-you-need calculation.
If your income is less than your needs-level, you get a Pension Credit top-up and also max-HB and max-CTR.
If your income is more than your needs-level, you don’t get Pension Credit but you can still have a reduced amount of HB and CTR*.
The amount of HB and CTR that you get depends on your excess-income from the got-vs-need calculation.
The higher your income, the less HB and CTR that you get.
Before the niece claimed Carer’s Allowance, the aunt qualified for a Severe Disability Premium of £82.90pw in her needs-level.
There are three rules for a single person to qualify for this:
- You must get PIP-Daily-Living-Component, or Attendance Allowance, or middle or high rate DLA-Care-Component
- There must be no other adults living with you (unless they also get PIP/AA/DLA)
- Nobody must be getting Carer’s Allowance or UC-Carer-Element for looking after you
After her niece claimed Carer’s Allowance, the aunt no longer qualified for this.
So, her needs-level reduced, which meant her excess-income increased, which meant that her HB and CTR reduced (to zero)
There are only a couple of situations where one person’s benefit claims, will affect someone else’s. And this is the main one.
Sometimes this works out to be a break-even situation where money is taken from the person who has the disability and a similar amount is allowed to the carer.
But if the niece is getting Universal Credit (or one of the legacy benefits) this would work out as an overall loss.
The moral of the story:
If you get PIP etc and you live alone, get more advice before someone claims as your carer.
* There is a slight simplification in this statement