Carer’s allowance
If you are getting carer’s allowance (CA) for caring for your child, there are two main reasons why your entitlement may be affected if s/he goes into a care home.
•You cannot get CA unless the person for whom you care is getting DLA care component at the middle or highest rate or PIP daily living component. If your child has been in a care home for more than four weeks, the care component/daily living component stops. This means your CA stops.
•In order to qualify for CA, you must be caring for the disabled person for at least 35 hours a week. If your child is in a care home, you are unlikely to satisfy this rule. However, you can have some time off from caring and still be entitled to CA.
Time off from caring
You can still be entitled to CA during temporary breaks from caring. You can have a break from caring of up to four weeks in any 26-week period (or a break of up to 12 weeks if either you or the person for whom you care is having treatment in a hospital for at least eight of the 12 weeks1Reg 4(2) SS(ICA) Regs). However, if the person you care for has stopped getting DLA care component/PIP daily living component, you cannot continue to get CA.
Arranging care breaks
A ‘week off’ caring is a week in which you spend less than 35 hours caring for the disabled person. A ‘week’ for CA runs from Sunday to Saturday.2s122 SSCBA 1992 This means that, if you can arrange a care home for your child from midweek to midweek (eg, for respite), you may still be caring for her/him for at least 35 hours in the week s/he goes into the care home and in the week s/he comes home. These weeks do not count as ‘weeks off’ caring. Time spent preparing for your child’s time at home, and cleaning and washing after s/he has gone, can count as time spent caring for her/him. For example, any shopping or cooking that relate solely to the visit and any cleaning up afterwards can count as caring.3CG/006/1990; para 60041 DMG
Carer element, carer premium and carer addition
If you are on UC, the carer element stops when you no longer have ‘regular and substantial’ caring responsibilities for your child (see here), including if your child’s DLA care component or PIP daily living component has stopped being paid.4Regs 29 and 30 UC Regs If your entitlement to CA stops, the carer premium or carer addition in your IS, income-based JSA, income-related ESA, PC or HB/CTR stops eight weeks after your entitlement to CA stops. This rule also applies to CTR, unless you are also getting UC.5IS Sch 2 para 14ZA IS Regs
JSA Sch 1 para 17(3) JSA Regs
ESA Sch 4 para 8(4) ESA Regs
PC Sch 1 para 4 SPC Regs
HB Sch 3 para 17(2) HB Regs; Sch 3 para 9(2) HB(SPC) Regs
CTR Sch 1 para 14(4) CTR(S) Regs; Sch 1 para 10(2) CTR(SPC)(S) Regs If you were entitled to IS only because you were getting CA, eight weeks after CA stops you can no longer claim IS on that basis.
See Chapter 1 for more information about the carer element, carer premium and carer addition.