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)

Agree.
I think the whole system will face an overhaul soon.
It needs to be drastically increased ( although as has been previously said many claiming carers will also be getting other benefits) and just for those caring a decent number of hours.
In fact the whole disability benefits system especially for older people needs overhauling because basically every older person over the age of about 75 will be claiming them the way things are going and I don't see how the government can possibly afford it in the long run.

Evidence please that the majority of 1.4 million people are claiming CA just because they can.

I feel sorry for you, it must be awful to harbour such hate in your heart.

In Ireland it's a little bit better. We could improve it significantly if the will was there and caring was valued.

Yes, god forbid we should ensure the elderly disabled are taken care of.

I wouldn’t worry about it. By essentially making sure people of my generation won’t have a pension age, mixed in with horrendous way our healthcare system is going, the government are making darn sure the disabled and those more likely to die of illness rather than old age will not live to see 75+.

Well let's deconstruct that.

The person a CA claimant is caring for has, as a prerequisite, been assessed as needing to care (via their PIP or DLA claim).

So the caree needs care, and the CA claimant is asserting that they provide that care. Two people can't claim CA for the same caree, and the earned income limit for a CA claimant is very low.

So you're asserting not just that "so many people claim it because they can" (committing benefit fraud). What you're actually saying is that those people are preventing their careers from receiving real care too. So exploiting and/or neglecting a disabled friend or loved one.

That's quite a stonking generalisation to throw about without evidence.

Good lord! Some of the responses on this thread are so ignorant.

I cared for my MIL for 13yrs before she died aged 96.

13yrs in a care home would have cost 624,000
13yrs of carers allowance is approx 52,000

So I saved the government approx 570,000

And they did not grant me carers allowance.

Yes it needs an overhaul. People giving care should be paid properly to do so. I'm not suggesting they get the 4-6k a month it costs for the care home but seriously? People are griping about carers being paid 76 quid a week. Get a bloody grip on reality.

I’ve gone from earning about £500 a week to getting CA. I don’t know why anyone would choose this.
I can’t ‘outsource’ my teenagers care. She’s autistic, a stranger coming in is her literal worst nightmare.
If the school system was fit for use we might not be in this position to start with. But sometimes we can’t leave the house for days because she is in a bad way.
I can’t even work online because I need to be available to her needs and also to transport her the very variable times that school are able to accommodate her.
We get DA and child benefit for DD, but the carers allowance means my NI is covered, because it’s really not an amount of money to live off. Mine basically goes back on DD anyway.

Oh and whilst I am ranting, just think about the thousands of children caring for adults before, after, and sometimes instead of, going to school. It's a fucking disgrace.

@Babyroobs again, what other benefits?! Being a carer only entitles you to claim CA!
**
just for those caring a decent number of hours.

And what do you think is happening to all these people who need care but aren’t getting it? Are they all in hospital or lying dead at home or what? Because that is what will happen if they aren’t receiving the care they need.

Some posters on this thread are a disgrace and so is MNHQ for letting certain posts stand.

Ableism, ageism and bashing of unpaid carers all seem to be acceptable to MNHQ. This isn't the first time they have tolerated it, either. It is sickening.

I am going to stomp off now. Wishing all of my fellow carers a good weekend.

@IClaudine I agree.

Have a good weekend.

Absolute bullshit.

Source?

Auditing carers who receive carers allowance- yes please. I welcome the opportunity to fill in even more paperwork than I already do (ever seen a child DLA form?). I especially welcome the prospect of someone who doesn't know my child or their care needs coming in and making a snap judgement. Please let me know when I will be receiving such a visit.

24/7 care is exactly that. Every single minute of every single day. My child might be asleep now but the caring hasn't stopped. I still need to stick the pile of clothing from today in the wash, put anything sharp/pointy in the locked toolbox before I go to bed, set the front and back door alarms, and make sure I take my doorkeys upstairs and hide them. If my child decides 4am is time to wake up, then I will be awake as well. Not out of choice.

In all the time I have been caring for my child, the only time I have been able to sleep properly is when they went on the school residential. Which they were 2:1 staffed day and night on.

Yes, I claimed CA just because I can.
I used to be a teacher, of many years standing and with extra responsibility, so decent enough pay.
However, I jacked it all in to get to get CA of £76 per week because that's just as good and hey, just because I could.

Idiot.

I wholeheartedly apologise to those who took offence to my previous (now deleted) post. It was awfully written and it definitely read as though I believed carers did not deserve the ridiculously low payment they receive.

When I said people were doing it for the money only, I meant those that took advantage of the system by claiming carers allowance for people they didn't actually care for. Its an easily abused benefit especially when it concerns vulnerable people.

Those that are carers are vastly underpaid, especially when taking into consideration what it would cost to have paid carers, nursing homes and other support.

I DO believe the system needs to be changed so that those who are caring for somebody are paid significantly more for their time and effort. The only way to do this is to get rid of those who claim it falsely.

How? I don't know. I don't believe genuine carers should be subjected to extra checks. They have enough to worry about. This is why I'm not a politician.

I also believe young carers should be paid.

Again, I'm sorry. My last post was poor.

@Concernedneighbour21

Its an easily abused benefit especially when it concerns vulnerable people.

I genuinely want to know how people can ‘abuse’ this benefit. You concede that it’s a pittance. You have been told how you cannot claim it if you’re earning over £140 a week (also a pittance). You have been told how it’s taken £1 for £1 from universal credit, therefore a carer isn’t actually ‘profiting’ from claiming. The only benefit to the one claiming is that it pays towards pension credit. So who are these many many people who are allegedly playing the system for £305 a month?

How is it an easily abused benefit?

1. You have to be really disabled for someone to be able to claim carers allowance- if someone is claiming it then not providing the care then they are committing elder/child abuse and neglect- it would be work to cover this up and carries the possibility of massive punishment if you are found out - it seems a bit much to think that loads of people would do this for the sake of £76 a week.

2. if you have anything approaching a normal job/pay you won’t get carers allowance- they do check and communicate with Hmrc and are very quick to stop payments and issue fines (I got a fine when someone took my mum away for a week and I forgot to tell them immediately- I called and told them a few days after they went away and I was fined £50).

3. if they are on other befits then they are reduced £ for £… so they would be committing benefit fraud (and as I said child or elder abuse if the person isn’t receiving the care they need) in order to get pension credit- again I don’t think there are loads of people that would go to those lengths for so little reward.

I have had a client ask me recently if her daughter could claim carers allowance for her so that she didn't have to look for work on UC. Daughter did not provide 35 hours of care a week because client's husband was her main carer but couldn't claim carers allowance because of being state pension age. daughter wanted to claim it and in fact could do because no-one checks up how much caring is being done, and it would have got her out of any work commitments on UC. Of course it would have been a fraudulent claim, but anyone could say they were checking up on relatives etc frequently. I'm not saying it happens frequently but it does happen.

I'm not saying it happens frequently but it does happen

So why bother mentioning this on a thread that is about the low rate of CA, not about CA fraud? Secondly, your client was very open with you about her daughter's intention to fraudulently claim CA to get out of work commitments for Universal Credit. It always amazes me how open these fraudsters,are. Thirdly, you have broken client confidentiality.

Alltheclogs I thought you could still get CA if you or the person you care for goes on a short holiday?

Have I hit a nerve, @Babyroobs?

I am not an idiot. What I am is sick of people trotting out unsubstantiated evidence about benefit fraud. Especially in the case of CA.

I'm not against paying Carers Allowance, I just think the cash should go to the patient/service user.

You sound just like those men who seem to think that they can support their dc without actually paying anything to their mother, even though she’s the one who who houses, heats and feeds them.

Carers aren’t trying to scam anyone. They can work a few hours a week, that’s it. They are already struggling to get by and now you are saying that they should be funded from the paltry amount the person they care for receives to live on?

£690 would buy approximately 66 hours of care at minimum wage (that’s just for care, I’m not sure how you expect them to actually live). Carers receive just over £150 for 70 hours. How the fuck can you sit there and argue that they shouldn’t even receive that?