Carers Allowance WTF

Carers allowance isn't pay for x hours of caring. By default if you are getting it you are earning very little elsewhere so are likely getting most of your income via UC.

Why would you get it on top of the UC? If they paid it you as an hourly wage at NMW, you'd probably then earn too much to receive UC. Would you be happy with that?

i was getting carers allowance for our adult son but needed to go back to work full time and there are no day services for him so he’s now living in a residential placement which costs over £5k per week due to his very complex needs. I said to the social worker that they could just offer parents a decent amount to be able to give up work and maybe employ support staff to help out it would save the government thousands. I have two friends with adult children with complex needs who are in the exact same position.

You are 100% right !

While you are on CA you will be building up National Insurance years towards a state pension. BUT you obviously will not have anything to pay into your own pension pot, and the way things are going state pension isn't going to be worth much anyway.

I'm facing retirement with a single person's state pension, in rented accommodation, with no savings (benefits obvs don't provide enough to save).

Please be aware of this, I wasn't and I'm now staring it in the face in horror.

Go and complain to your MP

I've recently been looking into carers as my DM has a life threatening condition and as a family we will do all we can with or without the payment.
Having read all the posts on here the system seems to be a disgrace. If the government, so by my interpretation, the payer/employer are insisting you have to make yourself available for 35 hours per week how, legally, are they getting away with not paying the minimum wage ?
No nasty responses as to "you should do it for free" please as I probably will.
But surely if it is demanded that 35 hours work/care is required to receive any level of payment then you should be paid minimum wage which has just gone up today to £12 plus per hour.
I wouldn't get away with paying a carer less than the minimum wage so why should the government ?

You’ve said yourself: your DH gets a good salary so you’ll be fine. Why do you expect the taxpayer to give you more? If you’re that “enraged”, send your mum to a home.

You need to be caring for 35 hours, so they should say you can only do a certain number of hours paid work on top. Purely because you need rest and sleep and balance. But they shouldn't put a limit on the amount you can earn.
Either way it's a crap benefit that's nowhere near enough money. I think they just don't really want people to use it. It seems almost like it's not worth it for many people.

Absolutely..my family gets universal credit and my husband earns ok. We have 2 disabled kids

Yep my husband works and can't claim carers for me despite putting in the required hours (and more when I'm really poorly!) Yet, I know families where neither parent works because they have two kids in full time education who get DLA 🤷🏼‍♀️ I'm not saying that's easy but it's a huge blind spot in the system.

Successive labour opposition leaders, including Starmer have howled indignantly at Tory plans to cut benefits, and also at the way in which the different benefits were deliberately misrepresented to get the public on side. I remember Jeremy Corbyn railing at the coalition government for the way disabled people were represented in the press and media with misleading stories to push cuts through.

Well we have a Labour government, and lo and behold they’re doing exactly the same thing. Cutting benefits to the most vulnerable, ignoring the repercussions for the claimants and being dishonest about the projected savings and ramifications for the care sector, lumping out of work sickness benefits and disability benefits together with no clarification of what benefits like PIP are for.

We’ve had disabled people trotted out on TV, and denigrated in the press, in exactly the same same way as the Tories did, in their attempts to sway public opinion. And there’s an added element. Not a day has gone by - both pre and post spring statement - when there hasn’t been a ‘damning report’ on Motability with the same tired agenda of making it seem that the tax payer is footing the bill for ‘free cars’ when nothing cold be further from the truth.

I voted Labour. Never again. They are wolves in sheeps’ clothing. They’ve launched an all out attack on the disabled using the same despicable methods as their predecessors, which also makes them a bunch of hypocrites. At least the Tories were upfront about hating disability benefits. And this is just the tip of the iceberg. If the cut to PIP daily living doesn’t realise the intended savings, the mobility component will be next, and with it Motability. The ground is being prepared now.

I also think the criteria means fewer carers are eligible, hence money is saved. Family working full- time jobs generally, somehow, do caring alongside which they don’t get carers allowance for. People nowadays often can’t afford to lose their wages, to instead get paid the small sum of carers allowance.

I’m a carer for DD. I had a good job, my income had come down massively. We aren’t entitled to anything else because of DHs wage. I would love to work, even a few hours a week. But I cannot guarantee I will be at any place at any time because it depends how DD is on any given day.

Who wants an employee for a few hours a week who might not turn up anyway. And no weekend/evening isn’t an option. So I am trapped.

What’s really pissed me off though is if you apply for courses it doesn’t count to getting a free place like being unemployed, probably because you might work as well. So I could use the time to do some training which would be flexible, but I’d have to pay.

Yes I worked agency nursing when I looked after my father in law with cancer and could only do occasional shifts when someone could be with him.
I was £1 over and they refused carers allowance.
told me to apply in January and I said it doesn’t matter he’ll be dead in January which he was.
they don’t help genuine people however I don’t regret it and we managed to get buy.

Welcome to the awful wold of carers and disabilities! Unfortunately lack of help to disabled and carers doesn’t take people to the streets , in fact governments like the current one have a way of turning folk against disabled and the more vulnerable because they know they can’t protest and nobody cares much .
Carers allowance should be at least minimum wage but the government knows to well most of us will not throw out children or parents on the street .

You can claim carers allowance alongside UC, in which case, you will have the carers allowance deducted in full from UC because it’s an overlapping benefit. They will then give you the carers element on top of UC, which is the equivalent of a 55p in the £1 deduction from the full carers allowance.

A carers premium is added on so it’s the equivalent of a 55p in the £ deduction - it’s treated as income.

@HashtagShitShop sending you a massive hug. I'm dreading having to lift my relative. We aren't there yet but it's coming.

Yep. And I don’t think the government have even thought of this as a knock on effect - lt’s not factored in to the projected benefit savings because LA care budgets come from a different source.

Family/friend carers are kept afloat with carers allowance and are saving the tax payer millions as a result. Once PIP daily living is stopped, care allowance stops and, as you say, the LA has to pick up the tab when the care needs are passed on to them. Not only that, but PIP is also taken into account in the financial assessment for home care, so LAs are going to be out of pocket again when the amount the client has to pay is reduced on loss of PIP.

There are also implications for self funders in care homes because they continue to be eligible for PIP while they are self funding. The loss of PIP will mean the funding pot depletes faster and the LA has to contribute sooner. A triple whammy which you’re unlikely to hear about in the press/media because they’re too busy denigrating claimants and digging up dirt on the ‘free cars’ provided by Motability.

Ilovecleaning

A person does not have to live with someone to claim carers allowance !

My friend does this for a very vulnerable person
They have power of attorney for their health & wealth
They have to be available for hospital issues, carer issues, all manner of issues & it has been very stressful at times

I cannot disclose the nature of this persons exact circumstances

My friend has a heart of gold !

Which is what l said. It’s counted as income and what you end up with is a carers premium worth 45p in the £ after the deduction.

Agree and the shit will really hit the fan if lots of people start to lose their PIP and their carers lose their carers allowance and adult social care have to pick up the tab.

Indeed I do. I was presenting an argument, is all - not necessarily my argument.

Have you ever tried to access care through the local authority ? Clearly not, or you would know that the system is broken and many people who need care are being short changed or left without it entirely because the resources are so stretched. And as for carers allowance being a wage - l wouldn’t call £2.38 an hour for caring for someone full time a ‘wage’.