AIBU to be angry about the benefits system

have not even tried to explore alternatives like your friend has.

Yet another ignorant statement. And how, exactly, do you know that?

Carers explore alternatives before giving up work in the first place.

Thanks for this. I get it. Your friend is accepting to stay in her situation and is not complaining about the welfare because assuming they know its A outside carers coming in or B her caring = less money as it is a benefit.
The ones who complain on here and do nothing but expect more and more handouts have not even tried to explore alternatives like your friend has.
Thanks again for this.

have a better quality of life

You haven’t the faintest idea of what it is like to be the carer of disabled DC.

It might be to do with getting outside of the benefit entitled home and contributing somewhat, even just a teeny little bit.

Or it might be to do with ignorant GFs like you.

its simple.

It sure is. You are so ignorant. Many carers are unable to work. Even the government acknowledges that. Not every disabled person qualifies for CHC funding or social care funding and not every carer qualifies for support from social care. Even when they do receive support, many don’t get anywhere near enough funding to work more than a few hours a week. When they do get enough hours that means the carer could work more hours in theory, carers use this time to sleep, complete the never-ending admin associated with caring for someone who is disabled, undertake household tasks they are unable to do while caring for the person they care for, and look after themself (carer burnout is a real issue among carers).

Funding carers for every disabled person so their carer can work full time would cost the state far more.

My friend doesn't want outside carers coming in. She tried that, she was lucky to get the same person more than a handful of times.
Her Mum would rather be skint living on carers allowance than have her DD upset even more than she is already at having a degenerative condition.

It really is simple. Go to work and let a paid carer come along to earn some money whilst using their professional caring skills.
It's a good place to be at work rather than stuck indoors moaning about not getting enough money

You’ll never get anywhere on MN with this argument. The level of entitlement on some of the threads when it comes to child benefit and child care costs v disability benefits takes your breath away sometimes. There is absolutely no critical thinking applied and every single time a round of benefit cuts is made and disabled people are in the firing line yet again, the sheeple meet it with almost gleeful approval.

What an utterly abhorrent post. Unpaid carers are the backbone of this country - without them social care would cost a lot more and we would all be paying higher taxes. Having read your posts, which are ill informed at best, and ignorant at worst, I suggest you go and educate yourself as to what life is actually like as a benefit claimant- especially a disabled one. I was a benefit adviser and worked in disability support for over 10 years and I can tell you right now the vast majority of claimants I supported had very difficult lives. Carers were sometimes in tears because of the isolation and lack of support, and you have the audacity to come on here and make jokes about going to the Bahamas on carers allowance !! It’s shameful.

You’ve demonstrated throughout this thread that you have little to no understanding of the benefit system and this last post demonstrates very clearly that you have no clue as to how lots of people on benefits struggle if you describe them all as scroungers. Benefit claimants are tax payers too, which kind of blows out of the water your last sanctimonious sentence.

You absolutely can go out to work and claim carers allowance as long as you are still looking after the eligible disabled person for at least 35 hours a week. The £151 earnings limit is regardless of the hours you work. You can also claim carers allowance for the person in addition to the Local Authority providing paid carers. I’m not talking about direct payments, I’m talking about after a care assessment has been carried out and the persons’ care needs assessed as well as their financial contribution towards care in their own home. As long as the person is in receipt of eligible benefits such as attendance allowance, PIP, etc and the carer is providing at least 35 hours of care in addition to paid LA carers, and satisfies the earnings limit, then carers allowance is still payable. You are confusing Local Authority benefits - carers assessed needs, and direct payments, with DWP benefits. Carers allowance is a DWP benefit and the eligibility rules are totally different from those of Local Authority based care services.

Meanwhile, single disabled people who have to live on £7k a year ESA may be losing £2,800 of that when switched over to UC.

This is why I get so angry at families who earn £4,000 a month getting benefits. Yes, childcare is expensive, but it’s still a fucking choice, unlike lifelong fucking disability.

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2024/apr/15/disabled-people-universal-credit-resolution-foundation-report

@Tomsthumbs your posts abhorrent.

It's beyond me.

Clearly! You have perfectly demonstrated your lack of understanding and comprehension skills. Many are forced to give up work, including far more lucrative careers, and rely on benefits when they become carers. Unpaid carers save the state a fortune. They are contributing.

This is all a bit niche considering the OP is not a carer in any sense.

Bottom line: carer's allowance is an insult. The fact that it is treated simultaneously as taxable income for income tax purposes and unearned income for UC purposes is an insult. The fact that full time carers of adults don't get a work allowance is an insult. The fact that Social Services assign an allowance for daily living, then take 95% of the remaining income of the care recipient is also an insult.

Bottom line: nobody is going to the Bahamas based on their career as a family carer.

You have taken those out of context. They were to a poster who stated that you can claim carer’s allowance to pay for a full time carer so you can go out to work (presumably also full time) and not do any care yourself.

The first statement taken out of context was about how the carer’s allowance isn’t the same as direct payments for paid carers which is correct because that is what would pay for full time carers if a resident family member were going out to work and not doing any caring themselves.

The second statement also taken out of context was in regards to how no you can’t go out to work full time and claim carer’s allowance. I didn’t specify because it was the middle of a conversation and it was understood that £151 can’t possibly be used to go out to work while using carer’s allowance to pay for full time carers. Another poster pointed this out as well saying that carer’s allowance covers maybe 2hrs of care if you’re paying for it.

You can’t use the unpaid carer’s allowance benefit to pay for a paid carer.
If you work, you are not eligible to claim it.

This is what you said. Both statements are wrong and l’m the second person you’ve accused of confusing you with another poster.

Anyway, let’s move on shall we. All this back pedalling is exhausting.

I NEVER SAID THEY WERE THE SAME THING, I SAID THE EXACT OPPOSITE, NOW KINDLY MOVE ON. YOU HAVE CONFUSED ME WITH ANOTHER POSTER.

No im not, I clarified that I don’t think £151/week counts as work because it is so low as to be meaningless. I knew you could ‘work’ but it’s so negligible that it doesn’t count as being able to work imho. It isn’t even minimum wage! That’s not an opinion, that is fact. £151 a week won’t cover even a quarter the average costs to stay alive.

I never said there was a restriction on what carer’s allowance can be used on.

You are confusing me with another poster.

I was a benefit adviser and support worker for the disabled for over twenty years. Of course l know what direct payments are. And they are not the same thing as carers allowance. You’re derailing the thread with this nonsense.

You clearly are confusing local authority care costs with carers allowance. You stated in your post that carers allowance cannot be claimed if you work. This is not the case. £151 is the earnings threshold regardless of whether you think it’s a living wage or not. The benefits system pays carers allowance based on entirely different criteria than that of Local authorities who provide paid carers after care and financial assessments have been carried out. And fyi there is no restriction on what carers allowance can be used for.

If you have not heard of direct payments for carers here is a link to a recent case.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/i-deserve-to-escape-disabled-man-who-saved-50000-from-care-fund-to-go-on-holiday-to-florida-is-left-stunned-after-council-clawed-back-cash/ar-BB1incVV

I know that but the initial post referred to these direct payments as a carer’s allowance. I simply clarified that the initial poster was likely talking about the direct payments because the initial post was about professional paid carers and “carer’s allowance” is for unpaid carers.

Many recipients of the direct payments colloquially call it a “carer’s allowance” because that is a benefit paid to them that they then have to use to pay their professional carers. That is what caused the confusion at the outset in another poster.

Direct payments themselves are only one way that care costs are covered. Some care costs are paid to a care home, and not to the disabled person or family.