To be annoyed about carers allowance?

[extremepie]

AIBU to be really irritated that in some cases you get more money on jobseekers than you get from carers allowance?

If you are a full time carer you essentially doing a full time (well, 35hrs a week) job and get paid under £60 a week for it. You can't have a 'proper' job and get carers allowance because you aren't allowed to earn more than £100 a week and claim and yet if you claim income support (and some other stuff) it is counted as 'earnings' and you get money deducted.

AIBU to be pissed off about this?

*Disclaimer: am very tired as DS has not slept properly all week so am probably getting worked up over nothing :D

Yes CA is counted as earnings on an income related benefit, but you can also claim JSA with it and receive a Carers Premium

Income not earnings....

the really shit bit is that last year you could do 16 hours work at min wage and still get carers. This year thanks to the min wage going up your earnings will be 100.96 and therefore over the threshold as it has not risen in ages. So a lone parent with a child could get WTC last year but this year has to give up WTC or CA unless they have work related expenses that bring them below £100 earnings again. (childcare etc)

Also deeply unfair that you lose out on £20ish pw if claiming a means tested benefit as CA is 59ish quid and carers premium is only 33 odd pounds.

I think CA should be based on min wage x 35hrs pw, and entitle one to working tax credit. Unfortunately this country is propped up by invisible unpaid carers breaking their backs for pennies to support the mostly invisible disabled population so this is unlikely to happen. YANBU at all.

It is absolutely shit.

I used to work one weekend a month which was my 'away' time from dd, and as a result was not eligible for carers because of the rate of pay. The fact that I worked my fingers to the bone for 28 days a month and was unable to have a ft job because of my carer responsibilities was not relevant.

I wasn't giving it up though. It was MY 48 hours of respite, as she wasn't entitled to any, having two parents neither of which were addicts of any sort.

The whole CA thing pisses me off so much, because it isnt a career choice is it? Yet it is treated as such!

No one wants to be a carer, they do it because their child, parent, partner etc needs care and they are the person who must provide it. The government banks on the fact that none of us would say "NO, I am not doing it!" because we wont throw the people we care for into the "care" system as we know that it wont deliver what they need.

YANBU at all.

I could go on and on about what me and my family have been through thanks to the use and abuse of carers, but I wont. It would be too much for any one to be reasonably expected to read.

I dread to think how much it would cost the country if all the carers essentially walked out if their caring roles and told the NHS etc to get on with it. YANBU - cares are completely appreciated.

My Carers Allowance has temporarly stopped because my adult son has spent 28 days in hospital and his DLA care allowance has stopped as a consequence. I am still caring for him in hospital. Apparently before the 28 days limit and the cut off you should record the time you arrive at your loved ones bedside and the time you leave so you can claim this pittance!
I feel so under valued and fed up with it all that I am extremely close to giving up on Caring, I can be replaced by agency staff at £20 an hour. Off course I will still love and watch over my son but I won't be his Carer and claim the Carers Allowance. I have come to terms with giving up my career, my pension, my social life, my marriage and caring for almost 20 years but this clocking in by the bedside of my sick son under the presumption that I am swanning around spending £59 I am not entitled to is looking like the straw that breaks the camels back.

Yep. I am now losing mine as I just got a part time job.

I am still caring for someone for over 37 hours.

Jesus. That's ridiculous. Sorry OP. Hope things look better for you today & your son slept better.