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)

Yes it is a travesty, especially as you say many become carers for loved ones because there is no provision and they have no choice; it's heartbreaking.

I don't qualify as I earn about £20 over the limit, but also full time carer. I need to take unpaid leave over school holidays as my son needs 1-1 support and there is no availability in my area. Yes, the whole system is a joke.

I never see information on bringing down wages to ensure eligibility for carers allowence on these threads.

The most important paragraph

You can also take off up to half of your earnings (after the above deductions if they apply) for amounts you pay to someone to look after either a child under 16 who you or your partner get child benefit for, or the person you are the carer for, when you are at work (so long as you pay someone other than a close relative).

There are other possible deductions for the self employed, this link has outdated figures but the rules haven't changed as yet.

https://www.litrg.org.uk/latest-news/news/170410-carer%E2%80%99s-allowance-%E2%80%93-can-deductible-employment-expenses-help-you-qualify

Can you out the £20 into a pension?

You could pay into a pension. 50% of pension contributions are disregarded. I work part time and this is what I do. If I didn’t the additional wages wouldn’t make up for the amount lost in carer’s allowance.

It’s been the same way for at least 25 years, although of course it used to go much further.

It is highly disgusting but has never had the momentum behind it to improve. Too much mileage in getting people to hate anyone claiming any support from the government.

Tell me about it! Although with Uc you can claim the carers element that makes up for what you lose from having carers.
My daughter will always live with me, will probably never work so I’m in a similar situation where I’ll never be financially independent.
worst part is my daughters disabled due to hospital negligence and because I’ve had to give up my career my husbands losing his hair having to work twice as hard for all of us.
in America they can claim respite care nannies and alsorts.
I think the government need to come with better ideas on how to help people, maybe provide Cleaning and respite care.

yeah, my elderly dad (80) is looking after my wheelchair bound Mum (77). His state pension (only income) is enough to disqualify him from Carers Allowance. Just awful that he gets nothing when he cares for her, literally 100% 24/7

Has he checked to see if he has the underlying entitlement to carers allowance? If so that will give a premium (so increases income threashold) if he decided to try to apply for pension credit. If your mother receives attendance allowance that will also give a premium.

YANBU OP. It's disgusting.

It is a massive con when a husband can get it for his wife, and the wife can get it for the husband, if you need someone to care for you , then how can that person claim they can’t care for themselves and claim carers for someone else. That takes the piss imo. The people that actually need it don’t get it and the ones who play the system just ruin it for genuine claimants!

We are currently looking into supported living for my son early 20s who needs considerable help, one of the houses we saw charges 1800 a week paid for by the council. They are saving a lot of money by relatives taking on the care,even though the disabled person is entitled to state care.

It is a massive con when a husband can get it for his wife, and the wife can get it for the husband, if you need someone to care for you , then how can that person claim they can’t care for themselves and claim carers for someone else

Are you an idiot that thinks all care needs are the same?

I think for a lot of parent carers in particular, they're forced into giving up work and claiming CA because other services have been cut to the bone
Totally agree with you. It's a total disgrace for those who have no choice but to give up their job to care for a loved one because they have no other options.

You however have many people who don't work and never had/haven't for a long time and see it as an opportunity for some extra income providing only a couple of extra hours of care if that.

It's drastically unbalanced. The problem is how can authority do check on level of care provided? It would cost much more to do these checks especially as it is a very subjective matter.

I mean, it absolutely not a ‘con’ and no where near ‘massive’.

An elderly couple only managing to function independently because they have each other 24/7 isn’t some sort of grift. You’ll find that when one half of these couples passes the surviving half immediately has to access carers or move to a home.

What’s wrong with your analytical skills that you think two elderly people claiming carers for each other is the issue rather than the fact that they have to care for each other and don’t have any other support?

I can't really work because of the hours of my sons taxi to school. However it pays my NI so it's still worth claiming even if only 76 a week. I haven't worked since he started school but my NI is paid up

I had Carer's Allowance when caring for my mum. My husband is on a low wage but the CA took us just over the limit (by about fifty quid a year) which meant that my daughter missed out on being able to claim EMA (in Wales) so she missed out on around two thousand pounds.

You can claim carer's element on UC as well as claiming carers allowance. The carer element adds about £190 to your award a month and means you don't need to search for work.

Throwncrumbs
It is a massive con when a husband can get it for his wife, and the wife can get it for the husband

Two people find they can mange different tasks, just as they did in the years before they were disabled.
Abled bodied person has a melt down about it.

It doesn't stop. You can still get it. But you can only get one "benefit", so you have to choose between carers allowance and state pension and since carers allowance is less than even state pension, you choose state pension.

It is very poor.

I do wonder where you draw the line to care for someone because they're your family member and its the right thing to do vs wanting to be paid for it.

We probably need to take a leaf out of the book of middle East and East Asian families and actually care for each other better with the whole family supporting

He is clearly not doing 35 hours care each week living 200 miles from his Aunt so he is scamming the system. Private pensions don't count as classed as unearned income. State pension does count though so if claiming state pension the CA just gets deducted.

Why is she not claiming attendance allowance?

Yes too many scam the system while others are run off their feet trying to care for more than 1 person. If someone claims Carers Allowance for you, then you shouldn't be able to claim it for them. Madness on the extreme.

* I do wonder where you draw the line to care for someone because they're your family member and its the right thing to do vs wanting to be paid for it.*

We probably need to take a leaf out of the book of middle East and East Asian families and actually care for each other better with the whole family supporting

Middle Eastern and Asian families in the UK still claim carers allowance.