Carers allowance breaches modern slavery laws surely

People are being a little disingenuous here
If somebody is only claiming carers allowance then yes it is a pittance .
But if someone is also claiming UC which in cludes disability element plus DLA for the child nd yes despite whst some posters insist It's perfectly fine for the DLA to go into the family pot, all of this can add up to a not insignificant sum.

What about someone in my position? I cared for my mum for several years. She refused to go into a home. She couldn’t tell you what year it was and forgot that I was upstairs changing her bed by the time I came down, but she never forgot how much she didn’t want to go into a home! Where was my ‘significant sum’ going into the old family pot? Nowhere. That’s where.

Hours and hours of housework, changing beds, admin, shopping, endless hospital visits and GP appointments. And that was WITH carers coming in three times a day. But of course the point was, she was my mum. And that’s what the government plays on when it comes to their attitude to carers. It’s your family. You love them. You should be a martyr and sacrifice yourself. Don’t be greedy, expecting money to put food on your own table and pay your own bills. And almost always women. Us women, with our guilt and our love and our sense of duty.

I think it’s an issue that will contribute to the ever decreasing birth rate (which will of course have a further impact on care… fewer children being born, fewer people to care for the elderly).
I adore my son, but if id have known that I would never be able to properly support myself again I don’t think I’d have had children. Seeing everything we go through caring for their disabled sibling, I don’t think my non disabled children will have children.

I think we need to have a sensible discussion as a society about care: who needs it, who is responsible for providing it and who funds it.

The idea that we as a society are able and willing to fund care in the way that OP suggests (the state presumably paying everyone a minimum wage when they are caring for a relative) is unrealistic. We don't have the money or appetite for this and the economy would be crippled by the astronomical amount of taxation that would be required to make this work. So what is the alternative? I think we need to be more honest with people. We are largely expected to take on the burden of care for our loved ones. The state can assist us in this but they cannot and will not alleviate this burden from everyone all of the time. If we acknowledge this then we are at a sensible starting place to look at how we share the resources and money we do have available more fairly. People will be forced to accept that we should be saving for care when we will probably need it (in old age) and accept that this is a cost of life that we should seek to cover ourselves wherever possible.

What about someone in my position? I cared for my mum for several years. She refused to go into a home. She couldn’t tell you what year it was and forgot that I was upstairs changing her bed by the time I came down, but she never forgot how much she didn’t want to go into a home! Where was my ‘significant sum’ going into the old family pot? Nowhere. That’s where.

Hours and hours of housework, changing beds, admin, shopping, endless hospital visits and GP appointments. And that was WITH carers coming in three times a day. But of course the point was, she was my mum. And that’s what the government plays on when it comes to their attitude to carers. It’s your family. You love them. You should be a martyr and sacrifice yourself. Don’t be greedy, expecting money to put food on your own table and pay your own bills. And almost always women. Us women, with our guilt and our love and our sense of duty.

Sorry but that's nonsense. If your disabled child's need is for you to be at home caring for them then the disability allowance can absolutely pay for that. It's money coming into the household how is it any different to income.

People are being a little disingenuous here
If somebody is only claiming carers allowance then yes it is a pittance .
But if someone is also claiming UC which in cludes disability element plus DLA for the child nd yes despite whst some posters insist It's perfectly fine for the DLA to go into the family pot, all of this can add up to a not insignificant sum.

The point is that it’s not ‘income’ for the parent in the way that a salary is. When I worked, my salary was spent on housing, bills, clothing etc for all of my children, hobbies for all of my children etc. When DLA is awarded it is made very clear that it is to be used for the benefit of the disabled child only, otherwise it is misuse of funds. It doesn’t constitute part of our household income in the way that my salary did.

Where did i say they were ?

Where did i say they were ?

Not everybody who gets CA is claiming for a child or immediate family member.

People are being a little disingenuous here
If somebody is only claiming carers allowance then yes it is a pittance .
But if someone is also claiming UC which in cludes disability element plus DLA for the child nd yes despite whst some posters insist It's perfectly fine for the DLA to go into the family pot, all of this can add up to a not insignificant sum.

It's this. Carers allowance will not be the only benefit paid to any household, it will be on top of disability benefits/PIP.

Lots of people claiming carers allowance are retired spouses claiming it for caring for their husband/wife. Should they be paid a full time salary for this on top of state pension and other benefits?

Likewise many more are claiming it for children they care for where they are also in receipt of disability benefit payments for that child.

Its not as simple as saying it should be paid as a minimum wage per hour.

Caring for loved ones won't always be paid. We aren't paid a caring allowance for caring for our pre school age children although having them often prevents working unless you pay for expensive childcare.

In our house everything goes into the family pot including my carers allowance ,UC,my dh,wages DLA i never said the system was perfect and I'm not going to divulge how much we get in benefits but it's more thsn my dh full time wage.

Then we both have experience of CA and benefits, and both know it's definitely not one size fits all.

And you know that people who aren't on the state pension because they are (say) 45 years and not working due to full time caring duties only get carers allowance full stop ?

Your "not insignificant amount" is relative though to the ever rising cost of living. The issue is the lack of financial independence for a carer who has to use less than 100 a week for all their personal expenses which they don't want to take from a tight family pot. It means no security, no financial planning ability and an uncertain future given the strict condionality of all benefits, meaning that if one changes, there is a domino effect on the rest, and suddenly debt starts spiralling.

One may argue that it's not the state's responsibility to help people long term, if there are theoretically other options available, but as many have pointed out here, theory and reality are two different animals.

This applies to the idea of challenging the statutory obligations of LAs and other agencies too. It's a long bureaucratic process and people with immediate and ever variable needs take priority for carers over wading through an unsympathetic and overly bureaucratic system that seems to be designed to test your commitment to the challenging over all else.

I know no system will ever be perfect but it's so far from even workable for so many it's tragic.

I'm a carer for my Disabled child BTW.