A campaigning carer says the UK Government has set a precedent for allowing a mum to claim Carer’s Allowance while the person she was caring for was in hospital.
Katy Styles, of the We Care Campaign, commented after the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) paid Rachel Adam-Smith’s Carer’s Allowance.
Katie Styles says the DWP has set a precedent in repaying Carer’s Allowance to Rachel Adam-Smith for the time her daughter was in hospital
In January, Adam-Smith spent five weeks caring for her 22-year-old disabled daughter, who had been admitted to hospital.
Her daughter has a rare genetic condition, learning disabilities and cannot speak. The hospital admitted her to treat gastrointestinal problems.
Payments stopped
Under Carer’s Allowance regulations, payments stop if the person receiving care has been in hospital for 28 days.
But the payments to Adam-Smith, from West Yorkshire, stopped without notice 15 days after her daughter entered hospital, according to The Guardian.
She was paid after the newspaper contacted the DWP.
Adam-Smith said it would be “inappropriate and unsafe” for her to leave her daughter with strangers in the hospital.
Physically and mentally exhausting
She added that the demands on her were physically and mentally exhausting during her daughter’s hospital stay.
Styles said families are meant to inform the DWP if the person they care for goes into hospital, but it does not always follow that this reduces the demands on the carer.
Under Carer’s Allowance regulations, carers must provide at least 35 hours per week of support to claim the benefit, which is worth £81.90 per week.
Styles said she was “pretty sure” the decision to pay Adam-Smith’s Carer’s Allowance while her daughter was in hospital had set a precedent.
“I’ve not come across this at all,” she said.
‘Administrative error’
Styles, founder of the We Care Campaign, is a full-time carer for her husband Mark, who has motor neurone disease.
In a statement, a spokesperson for the DWP said it had stopped the payments to Adam-Smith because of an “administrative error” and it was unrelated to her daughter’s hospital stay.
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Published: 15 March 2025
