To think actually carers allowance is the most disgustingly underpaid benefit.

[Spaceboundeminem]

You get about £61 a week to care for a severely disabled person. That's less than job seekers and about half as much as pensions are. The amount paid in carers allowance is classed as taxable income so your tax credits are dropped. So you don't actually get the £60 even.

It's hard work caring for someone and as it is soo hard to find childcare suitable for a disabled child working is often out of the question for many parents of a child with a disability. Personally I notice people moaning about how low state pension is and how low job seekers is yet carers allowance is the lowest of all.

While I sort of agree with you, you can still claim job seekers while claiming carers. Plus you can also work and earn up to £100 and still claim carers.

I'm not really sure how it works out, never having claimed it/known someone who claims it, but that doesn't seem fair, especially if you're unable to go out and work so left with no other income. It may depend on the circumstances though, is there another income in the household? Does the person you're getting carers allowance for get dla and therfore you might not be short on having food on the table/bills paid/other sort of care arranged for disabled person?

You can claim income support along with carers but the amount of CA comes out of the IS

My income support and carers allowance come to £105 a week. I get sixty odd from carers, and £45 from income support

Is Carers Allowance in addition to income support/DLA/wages/other income or instead of?

Can your partner work at it not affect your benefits? The person you are caring for, do they claim benefits as well?

DLA is for the person being cared for. It is not the Carer's money.

It is only received if wages are below £100 a week. People who receive carer's allowance can only do so if the person they are caring for is very disabled, and they do a full time job of caring for them. It is unlikely that you can hold a job in this situation.

CA is a pitiful amount of money, but it is rarely the only income in a household.
In the poorest households, it is topped up with income support as a pp explained, and if you are able to work alongside caring, you can earn up to 100 pounds a week before your CA is affected.

DLA is a separate benefit.
I'm in no way suggesting it is anywhere near enough on its own, but let's not mislead anyone into believing that the vast majority of carers are surviving on a household income of 61 pounds a week.

No dh works but I had to give up my job to care for Dd as she cannot cope with childcare and has lots of appointments. Meaning I lost a wage and in exchange I get £60 a week.

Dla is given (DD gets high rate care and low rate mobility) but that is used for the extra cost of having a disability not to give me money. Her siblings still have less income because there is no one to care for DS if I work.

Having a disabled child really does change lives.

So you are a sahm?

No she's a carer

OP I have never understood the justification for CA being less than the state pension.

YANBU.

While I sort of agree with you, you can still claim job seekers while claiming carers.
Doesn't quite work like that, you lose all but a small amount (around fifteen quid) of the carers allowance because it counts as 'money you already have coming in'.

So you are a sahm?

As far as I'm aware you can't claim IS if you have a partner who works, so you don't get that.

CA is not means tested so if your partner has a good job you might be ok but if you are a single parent or your partner is on minimum wage is isn't much considering it replaces your wages from work.

It us possible to earn up to £100 a week however most people can't get childcare to go to work, and if they could they still have to do essentially a full time job caring.

It sucks :(

yanbu
it is a joke imo.
but it isn't a benefit

and you can only get JSA if you can look for a job.
trouble is a lot of carers can't get a job as they are carers......and breathe

SAHM? FFS. The sheer ignorance of some people. SAHM implies CHOICE. Is caring for a disabled loved one a choice?

While I sort of agree with you, you can still claim job seekers while claiming carers

Er no you can't. To claim JSA you need to be available and lookin for work. If you are carer that is your full term job so you are not available for work.

I am a carer to DD, I wish I could go back to work even PT but the lack of childcare is a serious issue.

if you claim JSA don't you lose CA
i seem to remember years ago when dh was on JSA they took of the CA, so we in affect lost it...
also CA is taxable.

YANBU. My fried was her mother's carer for 8 years, and has struggled since she died to get back into work. She has now, after 2 years, just managed to get a job. The 'grace' period to let her grieve & adjust initially was woefully short too.

Does anyone know how much money carers save the NHS each year? I seem to remember it's a sizeable amount.

Friend. Not fried.

Absolutely agree OP.

I'm laughing out loud at the ignorance of the SAHM post.

You can get Carers Premium (depending on circs) which is around £35pw as well as CA. It seems to be a bit of a mystery though as no-one at the jobcentre plus seems to have heard about it apart from the odd few and then when your CA application has been successful the Carers premium isn't called carers premium its sort of mingled into any other benefits you get.

I've been through this recently and phoned CA to see what was happening as I was expecting a payment for CP but on my letter from CA all it said was that certain benefits could claim CP but the local job centre/ social security office had been informed that CA would be paid to me. When I phoned up the first person didn't know anything about CP and was told to phone ESA, who also didn't know about it, rang CA again and got through to someone who knew about it but couldn't give a breakdown of benefits and that Id have to phone ESA again! ESA gave the breakdown but there was jo mention of CP but our money was up by £35.

So confusing.