Benifits

[Greenbus]

Hi all I am on universal credit and my daughter is on my claim what happens when my daughter reaches 19 she doesn't have capacity what do I need to do hope someone can guide me thanks.

[Tiger0606]

Hi I think your daughter claims in her own right when she becomes an adult ,apprently what they say is there needs change.my son also lacks capacity and he claims esa and his pip.do you have a social worker as they can help with this ?you will most probably still be her appointee to sort her finances out.hope this is a little bit of help for you.

[Greenbus in reply to Tiger0606]

No we don't have a social worker but will my daughter need anything of the gp or anything like that and will she have to attend the job center thank you.

[Tiger0606 in reply to Greenbus]

I suppose it depends on what Disablity she has ,my son has learning difficulties,autism and a rare chromosome disorder he did not attend jobcentre as all his notes in a care plan also which doctors are aware of,do you have a local carers group or anything sometimes they are very helpful also.maybe citizens advice also can help with any forms u may have to fill in.

[Greenbus]

My daughter has down syndrome and suffers with aspiration and is on a mic button for thin fluid she has severe communication and language difficulties and is currently in the process of getting a speach book to help her communicate a little bit more we do have a local carers center we have never used it because we have never needed to do you think they could advise then thank you for your reply.

[Greenbus]

How do we obtain a care plan and what is in it and who deals with this thank you.

[Chocolate-heals-all]

You are probably already your daughter’s appointee for benefits, if you are managing PIP for her. Or you might have deputyship. If you aren’t her appointee, or her deputy, I think that’s the first step. To become someone’s appointee, one has to fill in a very simple form. I did it around my son’s 16th birthday when he was switched to PIP from Disability Living Allowance. If your daughter isn’t already getting PIP then it’s probably a good idea to get that application done first, naming yourself as appointee, and to get someone from your local Mencap to help you with it. To apply for PIP you ring 0800 917 2222 and say you need to be your daughter’s appointee or say you have deputyship if that’s the case.

Then to apply for UC for her, I recommend you ring the Helpline (0800 012 1331) and tell them you want to open an account for your daughter for UC. But. I do recommend you set up a dedicated email address, that forwards to your regular email address, and set up a dedicated phone number by buying and activating a SIM card which can go in a second-hand smartphone, or maybe as a second SIM card in your regular smartphone if you have one. I think you can even use an old-fashioned non-“smart”mobile phone, the kind one buys for £10 on the high street, because the reason you need it is to accept SMS messages and sometimes to take calls from the UC case worker. Have those ready, when you ring the Helpline, along with your daughter’s details including her National Insurance number.

I am going to write down my unfortunate experience which explains why I recommend setting up a dedicated appointee e-address and mobile phone number. I’m the appointee for my son. My mistakes might help you.

I first applied by creating a UC account for my son. That application was turned down probably for an invalid reason, but I didn’t know how to contest it and forgot I had made the application.

A couple of years later I followed advice which was to ring the Helpline and to tell them I was an appointee for my son. The Helpline person made it very easy to do an application for him. But he didn’t have an online UC account. Instead, papers arrived via the Royal Mail each month stating what money he was going to get.

Not having an online account made it difficult to get free dentistry and other NHS privileges. So I rang the Helpline. They straight away set up an online account for him. The hitch was that there was already an online account for him. So now he has two online accounts with different IDs but the same National Insurance number. One is open and active and has a mobile phone number corresponding to a mobile phone I set up for that express purpose. I can access it pretty easily, to check messages and to give proof of his status to NHS providers.

The other account is closed but has my contact details locked on to it. This means that I can never open a UC account with my own regular contact details. It is illegal for me to open the locked account, to change the contact details, because you can only change the contact details if a claim is open. I can only change the contact details on the old account by opening a second claim for my son, on the old User ID, and the DWP may well respond by closing his genuine claim and stopping his money. Nobody from the Helpline could help me with this, so I am having to use an alternative email address and phone number for my son’s live claim. If I ever apply for UC (I get Carer’s Allowance now, so there’s no need to apply for UC) I will again have to use alternative contact details.

[Greenbus]

Thank you so much for your reply yes when she was 16 I got a letter to say I was her appointe and yes she does have a ongoing pip award it's all very confusing there is so much out there and different people's opinions but thank you for your advice much appreciated.