Carers Allowance WTF

Carers Allowance isn't very much by itself, but most claimants claim some means-tested benefits which make up more of their income. I used to claim Carer's Allowance with DLA for my DS, plus Income Support, Housing Benefit, Child Tax Credits and Council Tax Benefit. Most of that has changed to UC now, but it's pretty much the same.

Carer's Allowance was taken off my Income Support but I received a carer premium on my Income Support which made it worth claiming. The amount of Carer's Allowance was just a small amount of my income, we got more from the tax credits as it had disabled child premiums added. So increasing the amount of Carer's Allowance wouldn't make much difference to most people as it gets taken off, and the value in it is that it means that I had no work search requirements and got Class 1 NI credits.

It's one of the few benefits which doesn't take a partner's income or assets into account, so I think it would be controversial to increase it. I still claim it although I have a very high earning DH and lots of savings in my name. I've had no problems claiming as I don't work and my DS gets PIP.

If some claims a qualifying disability and lives alone then they may be claiming Severe disability payment (sdp). It is this that the person loses if someone claims Carers Allowance (basically the theory is either the person lives alone and gets SDP as their costs are expected to be more living with a disability, or someone cares for them and they get the carers and the person doesnt need sdp anymore). Just be very careful as SDP entitelment is often what pushes older people into the pension credit threshold (AA is not counted in the means test but the entitelment to SDP raises the threshold) and PC is the best welfare benefit around entiteling the person to full housing and council tax support, winter fuel payment, tv licence if over 75 etc etc. If your mum gets PC then it may be worth checking if her losing the SDP *when you claim carers, will lose all her PC. Often best in this situation for older person to keep claiming SDP and pay the child/carer the CA amount. In short Carers Allowance impacts other benefits so always worth running a benefit check first.

If your mum gets attendance allowance won’t she be paying you that to care for her as it’s an allowance to pay for help? So you’d get carers and the attendance allowance money?

It's really awful. I can only work part time due to caring responsibilities but I earn too much to claim (I do 20 hours, but even at 16 I'd earn 'too much' and I don't earn loads, just not minimum wage).

Can you get your mum attendance allowance also?

I claim carers allowance for my mum, and she gets attendance allowance. Her attendance allowance is not affected by the carers allowance.

I feel you deep in my bones for that response. I am 24/7, there's no side life and things have gotten slightly easier recently in that in only caring for parent not grandparent AND parent during day and being called up at night to get them something or move their position or help them to the toilet etc etc etc...

I think it works out as all of 20p an hour when spread over the full week? Perhaps I should request her a care home place 24/7 and see if they could get away with paying the carers there 20p an hour?

There isn't, you get one or the other.

I cared for grandparent, grandparent and parent and now finally parent as grandparent died in 2019. Because of the time involved I was caring pre universal credit and receiving income support alongside it (all of 45ish pounds a week) so a couple of years ago they had to manually migrate me across to universal credit.

You get carers allowance and universal credit OR universal credit with a carer element. Both work out the same. There is no additional 200 supplement if you're on UC.

(eta; I may have misread and realise you might be talking about something different? , you said said something about not claiming the carers allowance but my exhausted carer brain didn't see that bit first off, apologies)

If a carer cares at least 35h per week on behalf of the government, then carers allowance should be paid at 35h of NMW. It's never gonna happen though esp under this vile new labour government who are on a mission to make the lives of people with disabilities and their carers even harder.

all this labour verbal bla bla bla about supporting 'working people'. Can someone explain why a carer working 70-80h per week is not considered 'working'?

Yep. It's a shit show. I couldn't earn any other money if I tried, I look after two family members.

So... my hourly rate for a 35 hour week (which in itself is a bloody good laugh) is £2.34.

And the DWP guard this benefit like it's a Golden Bloody Egg.

Yes absolutely. My aunt used to claim for carers allowance and supplement for my gran, despite not providing any care for her. My gran got DLA and so there was an automatic entitlement for someone to claim carers allowance for her. My aunt saw it as a way to get an extra bit of money just by virtue of my gran being entitled to DLA. Meanwhile another aunt provides 24 hour care for her adult son and gets the same as my other aunt did. It really does need overhauled.

I agree. I am doing caring duties from 4pm till 8am every school day and then 48hours over the weekend, so 128 hours a week. Obviously I can sleep for some of that, but the person I am caring for cannot be left unattended for any period of time as they are unable to keep themselves safe and I can be woken up multiple times during the night.
They should make the allowance larger, whether that is capping the number of hours but not the pay, or capping the pay but at a higher rate.
When I eventually fall over due to lack of support, it will cost them a shitload more to look after the person I care for.
Tbh I would much rather be working full time, but that is not an option for us.

I think there is also a carers supplement that you can get in addition to UC and carers allowance, something like £200 a month? The supplement doesn't get taken off your UC and you can still claim the supplement without claiming the carers allowance. For anyone thinking of claiming.

I looked in to this. In a similar spot that you are op. Not entitled to other benefits but can't work full time due to my child with additional needs and my mum who is going to need ongoing progressively more demanding care. I work a zero hours contract and self employed and honestly the forms for it just don't seem worth it. It's very little payment for what feels a very vunerable situation to be in. I really dislike the feeling of having to prove myself.No one is going down this route for the "luxury lifestyle" it just feels such a kick in the teeth all the hoops to jump for what is not very much money at all but it is better than nothing. They can never seem to get my pay right as it is working ad hoc bank staff. It just doesn't feel worth the stress.

I disagree with this.

35 hours of care plus 35 hours of full time work is 70 hours. Plenty of people in busy jobs are easily expected to work this and no one bats an eyelid saying it's impossible.

People who provide a lot of care should get Carers Allowance for their work whether they also work a full time job or not. They're still saving the government £££s, the meagre amount of carers allowance is just a bonus at most, for recognition.

Or, alternatively, make carers allowance a proper bloody amount for 35hours worth of work and make deductions for work income, like they do Universal Credit.

The last figure I read was £184 billion a year.

It seems incredible to me that caring for a loved one is so undervalued .Its a short term view and so many people are suffering .I also find it astonishing that so many child carers are not only not paid.but expected/accepted that they will be "caring" for an adult relative when its illegal to leave children alone!

Wow really 😞😵. I didn't know that

this is the reality which a lot of people don’t understand as they never come across it.
Why? Why not to increase taxes for those who earn more and increase carer allowance or at least cap hours of work, not earnings?
I try not to think about it tbh as it gives me absolute rage. As you can guess Im a carer, my child has disability.

Carers allowance is taken off UC. You get £324ish in carers every 4 weeks (13 times a year) but UC takes £355 away every month x 12. The only point in claiming CA on UC is for the pension credits. Welcome to the rock and hard place life.

Some people do a lot of caring. Others hardly any. But they get the same allowance. The whole system needs to be overhauled.

When i thought about trying to get carers allowance for looking after my mum i was told the amount i would get would automatically come off her attendance allowance, is that still true?

Yep.. I worked 2 days a week as a Ta ..term time only on supply so no holiday pay either... but then got a whole 143.00 back pay from a backdated payrise... so went over the limit even though paid monthly . Carer's stopped
I've given up claiming now even though I am going to be caring till I die I try to get a few extra hours in as an when I can at work .It just wasn't worth the stress.

Agree OP, CA is an absolute shambles of a system. Carers save the government billions, and are rewarded with £81.90 per week for it.

For those still waiting for their form to be assessed - bearing in mind you are all earning under the earnings threshold, and have to live like that without the carers allowance until they complete your claim - I have a bank contract with the NHS, so variable hours, I asked for a managers phonecall - they are then supposed to call you back within 3 working days. I did get a call, and she was very good. I explained I managed my own hours - confirmed by the payslips I sent in, but was struggling to manage on my wage without the carers allowance being in place.
I live alone, so theres no other wage coming in, but i do have a workplace pension which i have taken - pensions dont count towards the employment earnings threshold.
I was still caring for my mum, still using the petrol to take her to appointments but not getting the allowance. All the staff who answer the phone just tell you it's with the processing team - ask for a manager call back