CAB Can sister claim cash for helping dad?
My sister and I take it in turns to go and look after my dad, who still lives by himself, but needs a lot of help.
He has just been awarded Attendance Allowance.
I work full time, but my sister only works a few hours per week and we were wondering if she should claim Carer’s Allowance for looking after him.
As long as your sister is able to say she is looking after your dad for 35 hours weekly, and earns less than £128 per week, she will likely we eligible to claim Carer’s Allowance.
She would also then the due the Carer’s Allowance Supplement of £231.40, twice yearly.
There are other things to take into account when working out if this is the best option.
If your dad receives Pension Credit, this could be topped up by £67.30 per week because he gets Attendance Allowance and lives alone. This is called a ‘severe disability addition’.
However, he would lose this if someone is claiming Carer’s Allowance for looking after him.
Depending on your sister ’s circumstances – if she has a family, a partner who is working, or pays rent – the better option may be to not claim carer’s allowance, but to have a Universal Credit claim topped up with the additional amount for being a carer.
This would not affect your father’s Pension Credit.
Your sister and father may need tailored benefits advice, and can phone Renfrewshire Citizens Advice Bureau on 0141 889 2121, Advice Works on 0300 300 1238, or the national Money Talk Team on 0800 085 7145.
My phone was stolen at the beginning of the week.
I reported this to my phone provider as soon as I could, but have looked at my account online and see that a lot of expensive calls have been made against my bill. Will I have to pay for these?
Is there anything else I should do. You may have done this already, but you should report the theft to the police by attending or phoning your local station on 101, and should tell them your phone’s identification number (IMEI) which your network provider will give you.
If someone else runs up a big bill on your phone, you’ll usually have to pay for the cost of the calls up until the time you reported the phone missing.
Some phone networks will only charge you a maximum of £100 if your phone is lost or stolen, as long as you report it within 24 hours, though this only applies to monthly contracts.
If you have a pay-as-you go contract, you might not get a refund for any credit that’s used before you report the loss.
If your network charges you the full amount for the calls made before you reported it, you should ask if they can reduce the bill, but they don’t have to.
If they try to charge you for calls made after you reported the phone missing, you should dispute the bill.
If your phone is insured, you might be covered for the cost of unauthorised calls made between you losing your phone and reporting it missing.
Check with your insurance provider to see if you’re covered.
I am angry with the way my GP has treated me. He didn’t take my symptoms seriously enough and it turns out that I should have been getting treatment much earlier. How do I complain about this?
There is a service to assist people making complaints about NHS services which is run by Citizens Advice Bureaux in Scotland.
You can phone the Patient Advice and Support Service (PASS) on 0800 028 2816.
They can assist you in getting e x p l a nat i o n s, a re v i e w o f o r improvement to procedures, or an apology.
They won’t be able to assist if you decide that you want compensation, as you would need a solicitor for that.