To think the disgrace that is Carers' Allowance should be a national scandal

[FoxyTheFox]

Carers' Allowance is paid to someone over the age of 16 who provides a minimum of 35hrs p/wk of care to a disabled person who is in receipt of a qualifying benefit.

The current weekly rate of Carers' Allowance is £67.25 p/wk, taken over 35hr this is the equivalent of £1.92 an hour. Over 24hrs, seven a days a week - the reality for many carers - it is only 39p an hour.

You can only claim Carers' Allowance once, meaning if you care for multiple people - e.g., if you have two disabled children - you still only get £67.25 a week.

There is an earnings cap of £128, so working just 15hrs a week at minimum wage is enough to stop your Carers' Allowance.

Carers' Allowance is a taxable benefit so can reduce the amount of other benefits you claim, it can also reduce the amount of benefits claimed by the person you care for. Unlike other state benefits, Carers' Allowance does not entitle you to free prescriptions or help with other healthcare costs such as dentistry or eye tests. Caring has a detrimental effect on physical and mental health but there are no specific support services for carers other than those set up by external agencies (e.g., Carers UK).

When you reach state pension age you are no longer allowed to claim Carers' Allowance even if you are still providing care.

These carers save the government an estimated £132bn each year in health and social care costs - enough to fund a second NHS. If these carers were to suddenly decide to step back and no longer provide the care needed, the social care system would collapse.

Universal Credit was temporarily increased by £20 a week to support people during the increased financial difficulties associated with the pandemic. No such increase was extended to carers in the majority of the UK, however Scotland offered a one off additional payment to carers to recognise the additional work and additional costs borne by them during the pandemic.

I've written to my MP, who does not give a shit and sent me a generic reply about how caring is hard and the government is grateful to those who care but did not actually address any of my questions or my request that he raise the issue in Parliament.

novaramedia.com/2020/11/16/the-government-has-abandoned-carers-during-covid-19-now-its-being-taken-to-court/?fbclid=IwAR2Fs10I04h0fUNMRtDTYf0hs_ieA63dVeb5Hux8Os4IQttTBD95eGemCRA

www.carersuk.org/news-and-campaigns/news/research-the-forgotten-families-in-lockdown-unpaid-carers-close-to-burnout-during-covid-19-crisis

"Carers allowance is usually (as I understand it)"

Well that first sentence shows you are making comments about something you aren't sure of the facts about so the rest of what you said should be ignored.

The majority of society - certain more than 52% - is able. So really those in the minority really need to get over it. Not the sort of society I would have chosen to live in, admittedly. But then in the same way we don't get a choice over being disabled, we don't get a choice over how the disabled and their carers are treated either.

But this is about carers and the study I posted upthread showed that 65% of all U.K. adults will be a carer at some point in their lives (70% of women and 60% of men). This means that carers allowance and support will affect the majority of U.K. adults, not a minority.

'the income limit is less than £130/week. Max you can do are about 16h on NMW. not really an income!'

No, but if you're part time anyway it's a way to supplement your salary.

This is like saying esa or pip should be the same as decent fulltime wages. They aren't and aren't supposed to be. As a pp said it isn't a salary it is to compensate for if you are unable to work full time. An extra £260 a month isn't to be sniffed at. I know a couple who both claim carers allowance for caring for each other .

Haven't we just spent the past 9 months as an entire society protecting the minority vulnerable to covid?

I got absolutely ripped apart in March on here for suggesting that I needed to be able to get my disabled children to secure safe spaces for their exercise which absolutely wasn't walking distance. Felt very much that only the worthy vulnerable matter.

The “you can work part time” is all well and good. If someone could point me in the direction of the part time job with the flexibility to work around caring for someone who has regular hospital appointments and admissions then that would be wonderful.

For most carers it is a full time job, and people who need care to the level that someone is their carer don’t tend to stick nicely to a schedule of when they need that support. It doesn’t work like that.

People aren’t saying it should be anywhere near a “decent full time wage” but somewhere near national minimum wage for the 35 hours would be nice, it still leaves a lot of unpaid hours in there!

Something that shows that carers are just the slightest bit respected would be lovely

This is like saying esa or pip should be the same as decent fulltime wages.

I am on CA, not on ESA but if I understand it right, you don't provide 35h (often much more than that of work in form of care). CA is before you care for someone else.

You cannot really compare these two.

CA is because you care for someone.

How many hours of work to do have to provide to receive ESA??? see?

@GetOffYourHighHorse

'the income limit is less than £130/week. Max you can do are about 16h on NMW. not really an income!'

No, but if you're part time anyway it's a way to supplement your salary.

This is like saying esa or pip should be the same as decent fulltime wages. They aren't and aren't supposed to be. As a pp said it isn't a salary it is to compensate for if you are unable to work full time. An extra £260 a month isn't to be sniffed at. I know a couple who both claim carers allowance for caring for each other .

Carers is different to ESA. Carers is money for caring for someone for 35 hours - that’s akin to a full time job. Why shouldn’t it be reflective of that?

I also think ESA should be akin to a wage as well when it’s a benefit being paid to people who can’t work. Pip is different because it’s not an out of work benefit.

You may not have understood ...

If sarcasm was intended, it wasn't clear.

'Carers is different to ESA. Carers is money for caring for someone for 35 hours - that’s akin to a full time job. Why shouldn’t it be reflective of that?'

Oh fgs i know it is different to esa my point is benefits aren't like for like payment. So esa isn't the same as a salary. Carers allowance is a £260 a month top up or stand alone payment to give a contribution to costs. It isn't your salary.

The 35 hours could be spread out at anytime say 5pm until 10pm so completely possible to have a job too.

I dont think it only costs £20 a week to pay for kids upbringing either so you'd better not look at how much child benefit is.

@dairyfairies

Its a shame the OP's topic has turned into one group of carers claiming to have a harder time of it than others

so you think all forms of caring for the purpose of receiving CA are comparable? You must be having a laugh indeed.

@dairyfairies

Firstly, I think carers are underpaid and woefully let down by society. However, your views are skewed. Care agency workers are paid the same whether they visit the 85 year old polite, quiet person who needs help with putting a meal in a microwave and emptying the commode or the 25 year old who is 6 foot, 18 stone, physically and verbally aggressive due to their cognitive needs and needs help to have a shower while biting themselves and everyone else.

@GetOffYourHighHorse

'Carers is different to ESA. Carers is money for caring for someone for 35 hours - that’s akin to a full time job. Why shouldn’t it be reflective of that?'

Oh fgs i know it is different to esa my point is benefits aren't like for like payment. So esa isn't the same as a salary. Carers allowance is a £260 a month top up or stand alone payment to give a contribution to costs. It isn't your salary.

The 35 hours could be spread out at anytime say 5pm until 10pm so completely possible to have a job too.

I dont think it only costs £20 a week to pay for kids upbringing either so you'd better not look at how much child benefit is.

Caring for a child is a choice, caring for a person (of any age) with a disability is incomparable. Unpaid and low paid carers save many millions to the taxpayer. People don’t realise how stretched social care is already, the system would collapse if the unpaid/ low paid carers stopped.

Will let the kids know i can only care for the 5pm-10pm

I am wondering what I’m meant to do with DS for the rest of the time so I am only caring 5pm -10pm?

Will the fairies come to take him to his appointments and set up his feeds and medicines and everything else?

Care agency workers are paid the same whethe...

are you saying some staff who work 35h/week and get the same pay as stuff that have to clock in at 70 or 90 hours per week?

I doubt that.

@Mumofsend

Will let the kids know i can only care for the 5pm-10pm

@Mumofsend

“Mum, please wear the same incontinence pad for 18 hours because I’m working.”

“Sarah, please can you schedule your sensory meltdowns between 5 and 10 pm?”

“Gran, if I leave a jug of water with a straw, you’ll be ok while I work my 12 hour shift, yeah? I know you can’t feed yourself but I’ll sort a big meal when I’m back from my night shift.”

Carer’s allowance stops when you reach state pension age, the caring doesn’t stop though; it just gets that bit harder as you age.

@dairyfairies

Care agency workers are paid the same whethe...

are you saying some staff who work 35h/week and get the same pay as stuff that have to clock in at 70 or 90 hours per week?

I doubt that.

Are you not suggesting that, because some care work is harder or someone has higher needs, they should be paid accordingly?

This isn’t disability top trumps, it’s unsavoury.

@FoxyTheFox 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️.

@TikTokFinger

I don’t think anyone should receive a careers allowance for caring for their own child.

Why not? Carers allowance serves two purposes. It gives an income to a subset of society (most often women) who are prevented from earning a living wage because of their caring responsibility. It also gives them Class 1 national insurance contributions, which allows them to build state pension. Without that, their class 1 contributions would stop when their youngest child reaches the age of 12.

I can't work because I have a 15 year old daughter who needs supervision and there is no childcare for her. My husband does 5 jobs so can't help with childcare.

@TikTokFinger

I don’t think anyone should receive a careers allowance for caring for their own child.

Having a disabled child limits your life so severely, I cant imagine anyone begrudging parents the pittance.

@TikTokFinger thats fine but then social care need to step up and provide:

Night carers for my DD who is awake all night due to her disability.

Adequate practical support for my DC to access the community like children should be able to. Both children are full time 1-1 in school/preschool. DD frequently 2-1 so technically they need 3 people to go and do a simple trip to the park.

Childcare that specifically caters for children unable to attend mainstream childcare provision. Neither of my children can access them which screws us for 13 weeks a year.

Be in school full time.

The care a parent carer provides a child is way above and beyond the typical care of a parent of "normal" children. The £269 per 4 weeks saves them a fortune in social care support that these children absolutely should be receiving.

If a child needs additional care and the parents can't have carers for doing so then the state need to provide official carers to come and do the job. Cant have it both ways.