Carers allowance and secondary benefits

artvanderlay

Hi there,

My mum presently cares for my disabled brother and for my elderly dad who requires full-time care as well. She is in receipt of carer's allowance and half-rate carers. I think she is entitled to apply for household benefits package which is €35 per month towards her ESB but I was wondering would she be able to apply for back pay for this (and for the telephone allowance which was discontinued this year)? She has been getting carers for years but didn't know anything about the household benefits. Also, I was looking at fuel allowance for her but it doesn't look like carer's allowance is one of the qualifying payments, however, my brother gets disability allowance and my dad get the old age pension, so could I apply for one of them instead? Would they pay any backpay there?

Thanks a lot for any advice.

mrsbyrne

Are you sure your mam/dad/brother aren't getting the Package already?
Is your dad over 70?
Only one person per household can qualify.
The applicant must be named on the Electric bill.
You cannot qualify unless you have a qualifying payment.
She can't apply for the Telephone Allowance,as you've said its discontinued.
The Electric allowance will be backdated to date of application..
If she can prove that she bought a TV licence at any stage since she qualified, she may be able to recoup that.

artvanderlay

Hi Mrs Byrne,

I'm sure they aren't getting the package already - the only money going in direct to an account is my brother's disability allowance of 188 per week, and I have the receipts they get in the post office and that's just the carer's and the pension. I've just noticed that the esb bill is in my mum's name only, and carer's allowance is not one of the qualifying payments for fuel allowace...not sure what to do there. Could I apply anyways for my dad and just explain that he is obviously living there all his life but his name isn't on the bill for some reason?
The only reason I was mentioning about applying for the telephone benefit is that my wife got disability from last summer and we applied for the household benefits in Jan/Feb this year and got a backdated payment for the household benefits including the telephone allowance so I might ask and see what they say about that.
I'll find out did they ever buy a television license in the past years...

Thanks very much for your help.

mrsbyrne

If your mam is with Electric ireland then the allowance comes off her actual bill. so you can look at the bill to see if she is getting the allowance. The allowance including VAT on every bill is approx €70.
Your dad cant get the allowance in his name unless his name is added to the bill. this is quite easy but both your mam and dad would need to be vailable to talk to Electric Ireland over the phone.
If theyre not with electric ireland then the €70 is going into the bank account or being picked up at the post office.
Your mam dad and brother are all entiled to the package, but only one can pick it up.

artvanderlay

That answers all my questions Thanks again mrsbyrne