To think Carer's Allowance is a fucking disgrace?

[BoobsOnTheMoon]

Not only is it an absolute pittance of £76 a week considering you need to be providing care to a disabled person for at least 35 hours a week to claim it in the first place.

BUT you also can't claim if you earn more than £139 a week.

AND if you claim low income benefits (ie UC), the Carer's Allowance is counted as income and taken off your entitlement £ for £.

It's just so insulting. People giving up their lives and careers to care for a disabled family member deserve better than this.

(Just feeling a bit down about the fact I will probably be poor until I die, even if my disabled child manages to leave home one day I'll be at least 50 by then with no prospects for earning decent money or building any sort of security for my own old age)

Oh good, more hassle, stress and jumping through hoops for people who are already slogging their guts out. If the caring wasn’t being done, the people would be ending up in hospital or dead…

How exactly would you monitor it? Send someone round to shadow a carer for an hour? A week?!

Of course a small number of people will be trying to scam the system, and an even smaller number will get away with it, but that is not a justification for punishing all carers.

and if it's such an attractive option, why don't all those who think it's such a doddle, give up their paid work and find someone in receipt of a qualifying benefit and get them to agree to you being their carer.
for £76 a week.
nice little earner.
the life of reilly indeed.

Yanbu at all.
But there are thousands of people who claim it who are not carers at all.

You are living in cloud cuckoo land.

High rate pip is £690 per month. No social worker. No care package. No support at all. 24/7 care..how much care do you think that would buy?

Have you reported them?

But you can only be awarded CA if the person you claim to be caring for is in receipt of certain disability benefits, which are extremely strictly assessed! So anyone getting one of those benefits does need extra care/help.

Evidence please.

Yes indeed. It is a doddle.

Of anyone wants to come ‘monitor’ the care I do they are more than welcome to. They can watch me run around the house trying to dress my child and watch him kick me because he is screaming his socks are too warm/cold/soft or whatever he’s decided that day. They can watch me have to restrain him to perform basic hygiene tasks such as teeth brushing or wiping after the toilet. Oh, that’s when I can get him on/off the toilet, they can come into the school with me when I’ve been called in to help him there. They can stay up with me all night as well if they please! Maybe they’ll help hold the spray bottle after I’ve cleaned up some more smearing at 11pm. Or stop him running around the house rather than go to sleep, running taps and eating anything he can find (edible or not). Please put this idea forward, especially to DLA who just refused to up his personal care rate because apparently all that and so much more doesn’t qualify for the highest rate of care.

In the meantime CA is the only thing that’s paying towards my pension credits. Right now I cannot work due to being on call 24/7. The gap in my CV means I’ll never likely ever have a career worth mentioning, if I even get a look in for a job ever again. If and when my caring duties come to an end, I’m fucked. Sorry to be crass but it’s true. My societal worth (which by some of the comments here is already minimal) will be in the toilet. I can barely get positive credit rating for not being in employment. Most landlords didn’t even look at my applications when I was house hunting. I’ve already been told by others that it seems ‘unfair’ that I get paid to ‘look after your own child’ because apparently that’s what parenting is.

So please, please get these people around to monitor us, maybe someone will actually dig out an ounce of respect for what we carers do and how badly it affects us in every part of our lives now and in the future.

Gerrataere I am so sorry, that all soundsabsolutely exhausting. Your societal worth is sky high in my eyes. xx

It is but I mention the worst of it simply to get across how much caring can affect the individual not just mentally, but financially and more over a lifetime. I work bloody hard but I am rewarded in more love than anyone could ask for. It’s worth every moment but I will not have what little I and others get as a financial aid be dismissed as something unnecessary. Thank you though, you’re very kind!

Don’t even get me started on how the disability has to be long term or permanent in order to claim care allowance! My mum nearly died and I had to take 8 weeks unpaid leave to care for her during her recovery. But I couldn’t claim care allowance to tide me over because they said my mum’s need for care was temporary and you can only claim if it’s expected to last more than 3 months

And then you get people on here (including some NHS workers) moaning about lazy relatives who wont look after their elderly family members to free up a hospital bed.

@KarmaStar how do you know this?

Well there's social care and healthcare. I don't think everyone has a social worker no, and those that do don't have someone 'on the books' or at their disposal because theyre not needed day in day out. I don't think £690 would buy an awful lot of care, no. If someone essentially needs a babysitter surely that's healthcare. Disabled/elderly people don't just get PIP, they get addition benefits because they're unable to work. The £690 would buy a few hours a week though. I'm not against paying Carers Allowance, I just think the cash should go to the patient/service user.

i give up.

Yep. I started to type a response but there is no point. JudgeRudy has very little clue about this subject.

Do we?! What are these additional benefits?!

Judgerudy please do some basic research on the disability benefits system and what the benefits are designed for and the eligibility criteria. I don't think you really have much of an understanding of it all. Or the lives of disabled people and their carers.

I don't think Karma is coming back to answer the question.

Well there's social care and healthcare. I don't think everyone has a social worker no, and those that do don't have someone 'on the books' or at their disposal because theyre not needed day in day out.

I have two children with complex needs. One needing 24/7 care. In order to get on someone's book, you need a carers assessment. As my DDs are not 18, I am not legally entitled to one. I get nothing bot DLA for DD1. DD2 is seriously unwell, out of school for month not but DLA refused. I manage to work a few hours which takes me over the 139 week earning threshold so all we get is middle rate DLA and low rate mobility for one child. Nothing for DD, no carers allowance and fuck of in term of help from social services in any shape of form. I care about 70-80h per week and get nada for that.

You are clearly deluded if you think disabled people and their get help over and above DLA/PIP and or Carers based on need. Is that really what people think?

A lot of people on this posters are complaining about having to administer care to their own DCs and getting a pittance for it and then adding a disclaimer that they have high earning OPs!

I'm sorry for your hardships and I wouldn't a disabled DC on anyway but if you have a DH that earns well then you don't need the money.

Why would you expect extra?

Pension credits.

Spending 35+ hours a week caring for a disabled person of whatever age is work and should be recognised as such and valued. People should be paid for that work.

This is so ignorant. The amount of times you see on here women being berated for relying on a man to sustain their own existence financially, what a poor position it puts them in if anything should happen, then people like you moan that the main caregiver of disabled children get paid for ‘administering care to their own DC’. As another poster said, it contributes to pension credits so it’s one small step to ensuring you as an individual isn’t completely screwed if you ever get to retirement age.

It’s not ‘expecting extra’, it is a recognition that carers are saving the government and social care millions of pounds due to the level of extra care we provide. What typical care providers are paid is embarrassing enough, imagine berating people for being paid a speck of that for the same job that happens to be for loved ones rather than through a contract.

@IClaudine I have a disabled DH (higher rate PIP) and an autistic DC.

I haven't looked into claiming CA as our income is too high. If it wasn't, I probably would.

I don't begrudge additional care that I provide to my own DC or DH. I don't see it as "work". I actually do work FT as well.

Benefits are for people who need them not just because people feel hard done to because they are carers. We are probably going to have to agree to disagree on this matter.