Carers Benefit-Employer to complete part of the form

guideanna

Registered User
Messages
93
Hi All,

Wanted to ask about Carer's benefit,

A co-worker of mine who's son is autistic is hoping to reduce her hours to be available to him more, and go on carers benefit but is a bit confused as to how to approach our employer.

She is currently awaiting a response for Domicillary Carers Allowance, so IF that gets that approved, how should she go about "requesting" reducing her hours so she can claim carers benefit? The employer has to fill out part of the application but she's a bit afraid if she doesn't get it that he'll be p'ssed she wants to reduce her hours and "leave him in the lurch"....he's a real nice guy!!!!

She works apx 26 hours a week, so we're aware this would have to reduce to 18.
I would have thought she can notify our boss now, since he will have to complete part of the form anyway, but she thinks she should wait until the DCA is approved first? The waiting time on the DCA application is months long.

So i suppose the question is "What do you need to provide in order to claim carers benefit?" and if she approaches our employer to complete the form, but then gets rejected can she stay on her normal hours as she can't afford to loose that money unless she gets the carers benefit.
 
Hi... There a few different issues at play here. If the colleague gets awarded DCA then carers leave and carers benefit (which aren't one and the same) are easier to grant because it has already been proven that the person requires additional care via the DCA application process. That may be why she is thinking of waiting. Once it is proven the person requires additional care, then she is entitled to carers leave from work and doesn't apply as such merely informs the employer that she intends to take it. They can't turn it down or postpone it like they can with parental leave. The challenge is that she wants to reduce her hours rather take the 2 years carers leave which may or may not suit her employer in which case they could just simply grant her carers leave and she leaves work for 2 years. Perhaps they will be happy with her working but she won't know until she talks to them. She also needs to be careful of the means test, she can't work more than 18.5 hours per week but she also can't breach a salary or income threshold either. After 2 years if her circumstances haven't improved she would move off carers benefit and onto allowance which is another different means test. I'm not an expert but I did take carers leave and receive carers benefit myself, then after a short period of carers leave, i returned to the workplace but the max hours I could do was 10 as any more and I would have hit the salary threshold. I then left that employer as my circumstances hadn't improved and claimed carers allowance so had a very lean couple of years. Things have improved now and I've returned to work part time. It's a mine field really. We can all definitely agree there aren't enough financial supports for carers. I was 'lucky' that my partner wasn't a higher earner, otherwise we wouldn't have received any allowance. I was granted carers benefit on the basis of my prsi contributions.
I'd suggest she check the prsi contributions she has made over the years are substantial enough for her to be granted carers benefit, check the income/salary thresholds and if all in order, have a provisional discussion with the employer to let them know of her thinking. Alot of employers are not very familiar with carers leave so important she is armed with lots of information in case she needs to educate them. My employer was really fantastic with me and i felt so grateful as I felt I really left them in the lurch on ocassions in the early days when my child's illness was uncertain. I was open and honest throughout and regularly updated them and I think that assisted them with planning rather than me presenting them with a done deal and them being backed into a corner. I hope that's of some help and I wish your colleague all the best
 
The income disregard for means will be going up shorty for both single (€335-€350) and married from
(€650-€750) per week and from €20,000-€50,000.
 
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