To wonder if Carers will ever be paid more?

[croppedhimout]

I get less than £70 a week carers allowance for 19/20 hours worth of care every day. It's disgusting

AIBU to wonder if we will ever be paid more? I'd say no because...

1. Nobody seems outraged at how little carers are paid, not in the media anyway, where it counts

1. Carers for the most part can't strike.

Nope and for our grossed underpaid-Ness we are vilified as lazy bums.

This is for your relative, not a paid job?

@Busybody2022 yep. I definitely feel a pressure amongst even friends to 'look at what's out there'. I can't. It's humiliating that it's so undervalued

My DC

Adult dc?

@Hankunamatata no, child

I agree that it's shocking that carers get so little for working so hard.
I also fully support the current NHS strikes.

Well, we can't strike. It was brought home to me when my DH was admitted to hospital (we both had Covid, he is very unwell in other ways) and they immediately stopped my CA when I reported it. I'm now up to date, I think, but there was clearly an expectation that I would sign on (can't, pensions, although not State) and/or just get on with it while he was in for an indefinite period.

He's now on bed care and I haven't left the house for a month and don't expect to any time soon. Easy job, full time carer, isn't it? So well paid, too.

I'm really sorry and sorry to hear about your H

Carees allowance is shockingly low.
And employed carers pay is also too low.

No, won't happen.

Carers allowance is pitiful, an insult.

I had to stop earning to care for a terminally ill relative. It took 3 years for them to die, it hollowed me out.
70 quid a week to do that, it was a joke.

@poobaloo my post was not directed at you but realise it might look like I was commenting on it, I wasn't. I fully support the strikes too.

I didn't claim when DH was sick, I should've done but I wasn't in a place to be able to do it emotionally. It is a disgrace how undervalued carers are, both financially and in their worth to society as a whole.

@croppedhimout Thanks and for you too. Ironically I did 3 decades in a frontline duty role in Social Services (it does help with the admin) and I kind of did always understand how awful and undervalued it was, but until you live it...

100% agree, OP. It’s a pittance - particularly given how much money carers save the state.

Employed carers’ pay is also an utter disgrace.

No-one cares for the carers on carers allowance. No-one. It's been like this for many years.

Carers do it for love of their relative or friend. Some people dump in nursing homes and let others care and either individual's money or the state pick up. Carers save the state billions. The state doesn't care.

"We have to pay you to look after your own kids?
Sorry. No."

I"m guessing you would prefer that everyone asked for residential provision instead at hundreds of thousands a year per child.

I'm a Carer for my almost 100 year old aunt. I also work two p/t jobs and have four young children. And a brilliant husband who does so much for my aunt. We are knackered. In every sense of the word.

I also have a sibling who is circling like a vulture, waiting for my aunt to die so she can get the house....my aunt left it to me years ago in her will when I first started caring for her. The manipulation of my sister is wearing me down. It's all too much? Her horrible husband is intimidating too.

I love my aunt so she will have a protector in me until the day she dies. But she and the situation with my sister is harder than bringing up my children put together and multiplied by a hundred!

You can't have any idea. Really.

I really hope you never find yourself unable to work due to caring responsibilities

My sons disabled but I couldn't physically survive claiming carers allowance so started working part time while he's at school. Luckily my boss is amazing and all my leave basically goes on medical appointments but I'm much better off financially now.

I get that it is not much, but it would be interesting to know how many do just get carers allowance? For example a single parent carer will get significant amount of UC as well, it won't be that carers allowance is their only income. Any many work part time and claim carers allowance. If you just claim carers element of Uc you can still get that extra element even if you work full time. There are possible only a much smaller number of carers who only get carers allownce- where they have a partner who earns a high enough wage to lift them out of any means tested benefit eligibility completely. Couples who have a disabled child have a significantly higher UC threshold because of disabled child element and carers element, particularly if the child receives higher rate DLA- an extra almost £600 UC per month plus DLA on top. The point I'm making is that yes Carers allowance alone is a pittance but how many actually just receive that ?

We have to pay you to look after your own kids?
Sorry. No.

So, suppose one of your DC suffered life changing injuries and it took you and the other parent to care for DC 24/7, you’d be able to live on fresh air, would you?

All of us, are about 30 seconds away from an accident causing life time disability.