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)

Rubbish, 30 years ago was the 90s women were working out of the home then, back in the 50s or 60s maybe but not 30 years ago!

The person being cared for needs to be in receipt of the daily living component of PIP (or be in receipt of another qualifying benefit). There are some people who only receive the mobility component of PIP, which doesn’t entitle a carer to claim carer’s allowance.

she is.

the thread was about carers allowance, hence my comment about my dad being a carer.

What is so utterly disgusting is that carers actually save the government an absolute fortune. By paying carers a proper amount they would still be saving money, the carer would be valued as a person and the person receiving the care would not feel a burden. We are a rubbish country, the rich can but what they want including care and the poor suffer.

I’m basing it on two couples I know, one couple have played the system for years, he can’t work because he wants to see the children grow up, has a bad back, she has a bad chest, cough cough but smokes 60 a day, they care for each other apparently, they are early 30s , the other couple care for each other , one walks with a stick but attends dog shows with her dogs and miraculously forgets she needs a stick when doing to dog obstacle course…yes these people are playing the system taking money from people that struggle to claim anything who need it more than shirkers!

This.
When I read about David Cameron's disabled son, I wondered if his experience of parenting him might help Cameron himself grow as a person. This might lead to more empathy from the Govt inself for the experience others have across the country but with the added HUGE pressure of not enough money to live on also. Of course I cannot say whether Cameron did make any mental connections, but afaik he claimed DLA for the child (as was his right) but CA didn't improve.

It is particularly sad that people are not able to study at home, even part time, if claiming Carers allowance. It would allow people who have been out of the workforce for some time to update their skills & be ready to re-enter if possible.
It is economically illiterate & driven by ideology not financial logic.

Also it was pointed out that elderly people don’t get carers once they retire, so what age do you say is elderly? 50 is not elderly 70 is and they can’t claim it!

It's the utter illogic and hypocrisy of it that gets to me most.

Carers Allowance is treated as pseudo employment - the DWP consider it as if you are working, providing care, for minimum full time hours, and they want to see proof that any previous employment has ended, they want to restrict your ability to do a 'second job' more than most employers would, and obviously if you reach state retirement age that means you must be going to give up your caring 'job'.

All of that might be a reasonable approach to take - it is a full time job and more, even if the person cared for is able to attend school. It is often hard, draining work, and pushing yourself as the carer to work a job as well as caring can be too much. Many people at state retirement age would be reasonably advised to quit a caring role too for the benefit of their own health and wellbeing.

But if you grant all of that, why for the love of God pay a pittance - nominally £2.17 per hour? I earned more than that as a teenager before national minimum wage was ever introduced. If the carer is effectively functioning as a state employee, pay the statutory legal minimum at least! And why not recognise that so many carers roles are much closer to 80 or 100 hours per week than 35. In salaried roles where you tend to work what is needed to get the job done, there are strict controls aimed at ensuring no one is accidentally working for less than the minimum hourly wage.

Or, if you are absolutely ideologically wedded to the idea that £2.17 is enough of a sop for 'helping out' family members from time to time, that it is nothing like 'hard work', then drop this facade of rigorous checks about employment status and other work, and recognise that often someone in their retirement years will 'help out' at least as much as in their working years.

It's the government trying - and mostly succeeding - to eat their cake and have it too, to our detriment.

@MrsSlocombesCat it’s possible to have the mobility element of pip without the care element.

Also, while many people may technically be able to have someone to claim carers allowance for them, that relies on there being someone available to claim it which there isn’t always, so the family as a unit miss out on the money.

As I said earlier- someone could claim carers allowance for me, and a separate someone could claim it for my son- but my wife earns too much and my parents get their pensions. So we have 2 people in the house who require a high level of care and the people doing it don’t get carers allowance.

@MrsSlocombesCat also there are different levels of PIP.

Let’s not forget the three yearly PIP assessments that you as a carer have to fill in forms for and persuade your autistic child to attend. And that what you tell the Capita assessor seems very different from what they write in their report. So then your son’s PIP is stopped, along with your carers allowance, and UC suddenly demand twenty mile round trips to the Job centre. Then you’re forced to apply for jobs that you know you won’t be able to do, and nobody will take you on anyway because you have been self employed earning a pittance for the last 20 years. Then you send in a mandatory reconsideration which is turned down despite having all the same information as the one that was successful last time. So then you appeal and when they ask for reasons you tell them exactly that and suddenly they’re ringing and saying that we don’t need to go to appeal because they’ve reinstated it. After three months of stress and anxiety which was completely unnecessary. I didn’t get my carers allowance reinstated for a further three months because they wanted all my accounts from my self employment. Initially they asked for two months but then six weeks later they wrote and requested my accounts from 2022/3. Incidentally nobody told me I could claim a carers component on UC! I did get extra money when my son’s PIP was reinstated so now the back pay of CA will be deducted from my UC. I wouldn’t wish this stress on anyone.

Also don't forget that when you start to receive state pension then carers allowance stops.
Even though the person you care for is still disabled.

Yes, I already know that. My son gets standard rate for living but not mobility. And I claim carers allowance. You haven’t answered my question as to why someone wouldn’t be able to claim CA if they are caring for someone on PIP.

Got to love a bit of anecdata.

Thank you for explaining that, I didn’t realise.

This! And it needs repeating.

I too have to pay back Carer's Allowance. I earn at most about £600 per year.

Disability isn’t static- it’s perfectly possible for someone who generally needs walking aids to be able to manage without them for a few minutes at a dog show.

🙄🙄🙄

That is a polite word for it!

Needing your spouse with you just in case they need to call an ambulance is not providing 35 hours care every week. Elderly people living together looking out for each other is called being married. That is a huge difference to providing 35 hours care every week for a child, partner or relative. If they are both claiming old aged pension their pension would be reduced by exactly the amount of CA so they wouldn't bother to claim it. If you can't care for yourself effectively so you need a full time carer 35 hours a week, it's a bit of a stretch to suggest you are able enough to do 35 hours care every week for another person. CA needs to be overhauled to reflect this and people claiming to be caring for people living 200 miles away for 35 hours a week. This would free up more funds to give those genuinely caring 35 hours a week for someone an increase in allowance. If you really think a person would qualify for a full time paid carer just in case they had a fall you obviously don't live in Tory controlled UK.

I qualified when OH was so ill, but because I was on an "overlapping benefit" it was disallowed. Bit ironic really as I was entitled to the original benefit (pension) if I was not caring for sick OH and I thought that the caring role was over and above what the pension was for - i.e. basic household expenses.

I was able to deduct my child care costs from my gross income though to claim carers allowance, then after a pay rise I lost it. It was mostly useful to keep my ni contributions once my job seekers expired going as kids were over 12 to be honest.

they are both claiming old aged pension their pension would be reduced by exactly the amount of CA so they wouldn't bother to claim it

You can't claim CA once you start getting the state pension.

Needing your spouse with you just in case they need to call an ambulance is not providing 35 hours care every week. Elderly people living together looking out for each other is called being married

There is a big difference between supporting each other as you age and needing to be on hand 24 hours a day in case a disabled spouse of any age falls, needs to be helped to the bathroom, needs a meal etc and can do none of those things unaided.

HowcanIgetoutofthisalive

Your DM can claim attendance allowance

You can't claim CA once you start getting the state pension

Buy you might still have an underlying entitlement that gives a carers premium when applying for pension credits.