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)

"A carer should be an employee of the cared for person or of the state, the same as a nurse or teacher."

DS has 3:1 when I am not there so presumably I will be paid 3x a carers wage.

A carer should be an employee of the cared for person or of the state, the same as a nurse or teacher.

You know that carers on CA earn about £2 per hour (presuming they provide 35h care, many do in fact a lot more).

Carers allowance would have to increase dramatically if we were to be employed by the person we care for for at least 35h. So are you suggesting carers allowance should be paid on line with a full wage rather than this paltry handout?

BBC News - Unpaid carers: 'I had to choose to care for my husband or my sister'
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-66046712

We'd be entitled to paid holiday time too, so the state would have to pay for respite care.

and imagine sick pay? We could actually go off sick when we are really not well instead of working.

A carer should be an employee of the cared for person or of the state, the same as a nurse or teacher.

How would that prevent fraud?

I find it bizarre that some posters are frothing at the mouth, at the thought of carers getting £76 a week, without auditing; while apparently oblivious to the far greater amounts of tax revenue lost to the government through the black economy and other tax evasion! It’s just like blue badges - they can’t bear the thought of others getting something, they don’t!

It will be workhouses next to make sure those too disabled to work, are forced to earn their keep, through meaningless tasks!

Whilst also ignoring the amount of unclaimed benefits per year

I think there is a lot of ableism around. Some people think disabled people are spongers or scammers and so by extension their carers must be. 13 years of a Tory government and right wing media dripping poison about disabled people has had a very negative effect.

I'm not an expert on adults, but some children's care packages provided by the state (usually a mix of NHS and social care), are over £1 million a year. OK it's a minority with such expensive packages / placements, but I also know of some families scraping by on carer's allowance with kids of similar needs because they're so scared of what these 'care' packages can look like. The LAs are happy for this to happen because it saves them £££ but it can be a serious and sometimes dangerous situation.

Absolute and utterly disgrace.

@CompletelyOverwhelmedAgain that would be for residential care I guess?

@Alltheclogs - sometimes residential, sometimes secure hospital, occasionally unregulated placements with up to 4:1 staffing and the devastating thing is that often families had been looking after these children for many years all on their own and then suddenly (when shit hits the fan) the kids require 4:1 staffing: so surely that indicates how awful and unsafe it was when the state offered no real help until absolute catastrophic breaking point?

@CompletelyOverwhelmedAgain yes the whole situation is a disgrace.

These places are paid directly aren’t they? Before any of the ignorant fools on this thread run with the idea that there are families being handed millions in benefits for their own enjoyment.

@Alltheclogs oh yes, placements paid directly- sometimes to profit making companies - not handed to families!!!

sometimes residential, sometimes secure hospital, occasionally unregulated placements with up to 4:1 staffing and the devastating thing is that often families had been looking after these children for many years all on their own and then suddenly (when shit hits the fan) the kids require 4:1 staffing: so surely that indicates how awful and unsafe it was when the state offered no real help until absolute catastrophic breaking point?

Yes, there are residents where DD lives, who need 2:1, or 3:1 or 4:1 staffing. Where she lives is a charity; so LAs or ICBs are just paying for the cost of the services. There is no profit element.