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)

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.

Must be lovely to have no financial worries.

And live on what?

He is clearly not doing 35 hours care each week living 200 miles from his Aunt so he is scamming the system
I remember reading a report from DWP a few years ago that carer's allowance was the benefits most claimed fraudulently.

However, checking for fraud is not cost effective compared to putting resources into housing fraud.

Family to support family, as they do in those cultures.

Carers allowance is a pittance. I have two children with significant special needs. Both in specialist schools. One will maybe live in supported living, the other it’s hugely unlikely they will live independently or in supported living (they’re 11, non verbal and have severe behavioural issues).

I went back to work a few years ago into one of the only term time jobs I could find because they’re so rare. I now work 32 hours and am on the cusp of burning out. I have to take my 11 year old to his special school as we’ve been kicked off transport and they have no other suitable options. There’s no childcare for us to be able to access. I count myself lucky that my kids have special schools places but I’m so fucking tired of an absolutely shit system. I adore my children but on a daily basis, I’m smacked, punched, bitten and kicked. And I probably will be until the day I die.

Immoral… the government are frankly taking the pee. I’m so sorry it’s plain wrong OP.

It is a pittance.

Carer's Allowance is considered an income. It is basically just above £3 per day. That's the income that carer's get in this country. Absolutely shocking.

The upside is that claiming Carer's Allowance does put you into top pension contributions. Swings and roundabouts.

Carer's save this country billions, not millions, of pounds per year. This should be reflected in the paltry allowance, which is frankly a disgraceful amount. Even doubling it, and keeping the top pension contributions, would go someway to alleviating the chronic poverty that carer's find themselves in.

The tragic thing is that the people screaming about how the social safety net is too much must believe they'll never need it. How will they cope when the unimaginable happens to them?

Do the carer's get their own independent money to spend as they see fit? Just on say getting a day out and buying their own clothes, or going to the cinema with a friend?

Family to support family, as they do in those cultures

Do you think that people from those cultures do not claim carers allowance and other benefits they're entitled to when in the UK?

But what if an elderly couple are ok together but both prone to falls and can’t get up- they each need someone there 24/7 to help them up or call an ambulance.

Or if one has epilepsy and can’t be alone for long in case an ambulance needs to be called/meds given etc, but their spouse has m.s and needs help dressing/toileting/preparing food.

Or a million other scenarios where two disabled people are able to cope when they have each other but otherwise would each require a separate career.

It isn’t scamming the system- it’s SAVING THE SYSTEM A FORTUNE on having to pay full wages to two separate carers.

When in the UK? They are British citizens and live here.

I live in a multi generational household, simply because I am a carer to and adult son.

Getting carer's allowance is not easy either. The person they are caring for has to pass a PIP assessment, the majority of which is denied and therefore appeals have to be made.

It does though. When I claimed carers allowance they asked if I was caring for someone with an eligible benefit. PIP is because there is no low rate, unlike DLA.

When my severely disabled DD turned 18, we were granted 40 nights a year overnight respite at a cost (to the NHS) of £340 PER NIGHT! (and that was 10 years ago).The other 325 days I provided care for the paltry sum that is Carers Allowance. The respite costs didn't even include food as DD was tube fed so all prescription feed (and other supplies - meds, incontinence products)went with her from home.

10% saying YABU OP.

Who are these heartless people? Have you no shame?

My friend has looked after her mum for years and claimed care allowance. She also has two small sons. The eldest son has been diagnosed with autism so my friend has been awarded benefits to look after him (not exactly sure which benefit).

The upshot is that my friend is now getting paid for looking after her son so she can no longer get paid for looking after her mum, even though she still has to do it. AND the amount she gets paid for her son is less than what she got paid for her mum. So her burden has doubled but she now gets less money. It’s a stupid system.

I recently claimed for the first time.. My DS2 is an adult with autism. He walks he talks and has a job in a supermarket... But do I provide 35 hours a week care? You bet I do. He can't live independently, he has a medical condition that involves appointments, lots of needs, tests. His mental health is a fine balance and when things go wrong it's intense. I was burned out trying to juggle work and his needs and so now I work up to the CA limit.
His care needs are a lot simpler in many ways to someone who has 24hr round the clock disabilities but they still prevent him from living a 'normal' life and I will be responsible for him till I die, so I dont
think that £79 a week is too much to ask!!

I’m confused - if you don’t get the care OR mobility component of PIP what is left?

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.

"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."

It is not about wanting to be paid for it it is about not being able to do paid work because you are providing care.

During any respite hours my son has overnight respite which costs social care around £500 a night or he requires 3:1 support from specially trained paid carers.

It infuriates me that it’s take £1 for £1 from UC. We have to claim benefits because we cannot work due to level of care needs, yet any other paid position wouldn’t be taken away from UC top ups in exact amount. And the amount is pitiful for what we do, carer, cleaner, support worker, admin, some have to homeschool, nursing, list is endless.

What angers me more is the lack of future support. Those of us who are carers in the time others are building a career and we’re left with years of an empty cv. If and when our carer duties come to an end, so does the pay and nothing to help us rebuild our own lives. It’s a hellish catch 22 situation, I fear not only for my disabled children’s futures but my own as well.

This.

Been here, done that, got the TShirt. We couldn't claim it though, because over overlapping benefits.

If we could gave got it, I'd have claimed it. Some people have no idea of the daily grind of disability.🙄

Even if you are on Carer's Allowance if you need to look after someone else during that time, and I've had to help my mum as well, get other people to help care for the main person you are caring for, it's deducted.

To the so many people here having to juggle, struggle and keep going on, despite the endless caring (never stops), it should be renamed 'just about bloody coping' allowance.