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.

She not a bloody SAHM. She is a mum who stays at home and cannot go out to work because she cares for a disabled child. Perhaps the household income relied on her working full time once the child was in school. This is now not an option. There is not a choice to go to work. £61 a week is pitiful.

Notonthebandwagon, I have just done a very very rough calculation, based on 35hrs a week, minimum wage (£6.51ish?) and the number of carers in the UK, which I've rounded down to 6 million, it comes to.....72000,000,000!

So if every single carer in the UK said 'fuck it, I'm going back to work, the government can care for my loved one' and they had to pay someone minimum wage for 35hrs of care a week that is how much it would cost them!

That isn't including all those people that need more care than 35hrs a week etc.

It's really uncivilized that a person who is a full-time care giver to a disabled person should live in poverty.

That being said, I think disability should be dealt with via insurance that actually covers all sources of unavoidable disability. I understand the insurance companies manage to find a lot of exclusions, and that shouldn't be legal.

It is a disgrace and absolute disgrace, and so is the money residential carers are paid for the work they have to do.

I worked 2 full days a week when I 1st started claiming Carers Allowance for looking after DD. In order to work I had to employ a nanny as her needs were so great that a childminder/nursery wouldn't have coped. The cost of this sort of childcare was obviously greater than average. You are allowed to dedcut certain expenses from your wages before you arive at the earning allowance. Childcare costs are one of those deductions - however, they only allow a certain percentage of your salary to be deducted and I was paying out a lot more than the allowance. I had a small pay rise and the result was that I exceeded the max earnings allowance (just) and my Carers Alowance was stopped. I could prove my childcare costs (and justify the need for 1:1) but they would not take that into account. Result was, I had to give up work as I was not actually making money by going -and unlike others who can ride this out for a few years until the child starts school full time, there was no light at the end of the tunnel as there was no before/after school chldcare available.

I have now been claiming CA for 19 years with still little prospect of going out to work - DD has just been ill for a couple of weeks again. Whilst we have survived as DH has been working, we have had to endure 2 periods when he has been out of work for 6 months, during which time he only got job seekers allowance and the job he now has brings in a lot less than the job he had when we paid for the nanny. Our family has missed out on a lot of things that other take for granted both because of the lack of cash to pay for them, but because of the restrictions placed on our lives because of DDs condition.

I often work around the clock looking after DD, as do many parents of disabled children. The work time directive wouldn't even go near covering the hours we work amd Health and Safety legislation doesn't cover the things we are expected to do. It is about time the Government really realised the job we do, stop patronising us with 'lip service' and stop paying us peanuts. They know it would cost Billions of we all refused to do what we do.

and so is the money residential carers are paid for the work they have to do.

I completely agree.

if not of

Unpaid/pitifully paid carers are saving the country BILLIONS of pounds. They are real heros and should be recognised and compensated properly. I salute them - it is not a role I think would be able to do.

Just to throw something else into the ring if you are receiving a state
pension you cannot claim CA, I get £85/week fortunately DH gets a pension.

amothersplaceisinthewrong there isn't a choice. if you have a disabled child, you end up a carer. it's not a lifestyle choice(I know you didn't mean it that way)

'It's not a role I would be able to do'cc

Really? You would give up your child?

I know you are well meaning but you do just do it.

YANBU OP
I worked f/t after DS was born, his needs could be catered for in nursery, but finding out of school care for children with SN is impossible.

I gave up a £30k job.

I now work very part time due to understanding and flexible bosses who allow me to work from home, when DS is at school but I realise that not everyone is so lucky. I certainly couldn't work in a "normal" job, as I am often called upon at short notice to go into school to rescue him / attend a multitude of appointments etc

Caring and working are incompatible IMO.

Hi op yes I agree with you I have/a disabled child he is under five so currently he isn't e titled to the mobility component in his DLA he has ASD and learning difficulties and gets/ mrc DLA I,m off sick from work so I,m not going back but currently still being paid so we are not currently entitled to cares allowance or tax credits but I thought tax credits/were increased with DLA?

See, I really worry about what will happen when ds2 is older too. Since I have had to give up work to care for him, what will happen when he gets over 18 and I stop receiving child tax credit and child benefit? I won't be able to get a job after being out of work for 15yrs so what do I do?

This is the reality of being a carer for many people, not just the day to day struggle but the long term too :/

Just to clear something up for the "oh, so you're an SAHM AND you get carers allowance' attitude:

Support and services for families with disabled children is patchy, highly dependant on where you are living, and in general it is simply not enough. Here in my county they don't even do sensory work for ASD - which is moronic.

How are families supposed to have two working parents when it is nigh on IMPOSSIBLE to get adequate childcare and most employers these days expect you to be at their beck and call?

Precisely bandwagon I work as a nurse for the NHS ( well did do) they were well aware of my family circumstances as its the NHS they ha e all kinds of policies in place for flexible working but when I applied for it I was out rightly refused if the NHS won't accommodate emp!oyees who have disabled children what hope is their for employees in the private sector?

You cannot get JSA and CA.

and yes, in certain circumstances you get IS etc but if you have a partner who works, all you get is CA (and a reduction in tax credits). So less than 60 pound per week in return fir the loss of an income. Plus no sick pay, no annual leave, no pension. Utter disgrace

That's a good point extremepie.

While it is possible to return to work after 15 years of being out of the workplace, if you are a carer, your child's care needs aren't going to diminish just because they have had their 18th birthday, so you are in a position where you will still be a carer but will lose the child tax credit and child benefit.
What happens to your adult child if you need to work to afford to live once you lose your child tax credit and child benefit?
That is a frightening prospect and I'm interested to know what other people have done.

dp often gets up at stupid oclock to help me sit up/turn over/have a wee etc several times a night. He works part time. Those days I don't get dressed til he gets home and eats, so 3/4 pm ish. It takes at least 1.5 hrs for me to get washed and dressed with dp's help. Then he gets ready
disability and caring is really tiring and time consuming
£100 a week doesn't really compensate, tbh

Lacks, that prospect really scares me because, while we are ok now with what we receive, it won't stay that way forever :/

I've only been out of work & caring full time for a year or so so there's still time for me to get back into employment, hence I am retraining and changing careers to have a hope of finding a job in the future that will fit better around ds & his care needs. There's no guarantees but I have to try or when he's over 18 I will probably be completely screwed :( I hard relying on the government for my income because it just feels like it could be taken away at any moment!

What are you retraining in extremepie?

I hope you are getting lots of support because it must be difficult to retrain as well as caring. As many posters have said on here, it's not always possible to do anything else but caring when you have a disabled person to care for and there must be many carers in the position you describe where they are fearful of the future and how they will cope.

lacksdirection it gets harder.
mine is a term time college now(boarding) and an adult
you would think ..easy get a job.
I wish
22 years of not working.
10 days off for half term. reviews (8 hour round trip) and no carers in place.
add in. no CA/CTC/DLA nothing

I get Carer's allowance for my disabled DD but also get additions to child tax credit, income support, full housing benefit and most of council tax paid. I am disabled myself so I get DLA and extra premiums on my income support as well. It is a reasonable amount to live on, I only had a min wage job before DD got ill so I'm not in the position of pp who have had to give up highly paid work to be a carer, which makes it easier to budget as I've always been used to a low income. Carer's allowance is only a small part of our budget.

DD is 16 and when she leaves school within the next few years I will lose child tax credits and child benefits, but she will be able to claim ESA and PIP in her own right (almost certain to be awarded it due to the severity of her disability), and HB/council tax will still be paid as before. She will live with me until at least her 30s, she will not be ready for independent living before then and I've not been impressed by supported housing schemes I've seen. I will continue to get Carer's allowance even when she is an adult - it is not just for children. It will be less money than the amount of child tax credits/benefit we get now, but having done the sums, I think it will be manageable. Contact a Family are brilliant at working out how changes will affect you.

good luck with that