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)

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.

If I remember rightly this exact point was raised directly with him in parliament and he got incredibly defensive and decided that his personal experience wasn’t up for discussion.

Take from that what you will.

So you’re basing it on your own prejudices? Got it.

It is absolutely disgusting, and a disgrace - in one of the richest countries in the world carers are treated appallingly with a complete lack of respect.

The rate of carers allowance is so low it is almost more insulting than offering nothing. I mean who else would be offered £2 an hour. It also speaks volumes about how the government/ society sees those being cared for as the message seems to imply that unless you are directly contributing to the economy you are worthless.

I know carers organisations exist, but sadly they also have very limited resources on offer. A carer can attend a coffee morning or support group , but the respite needed to manage this is usually not forthcoming.

They started over 50 years ago

So presumably as you KNOW they have made a fraudulent claim you have reported them for doing so?

It's an absolute joke.

I'm paid £76 as some sort of compensation for the fact that I have an enormous burden and the state refuses to support us any capacity.

The amount would be tolerable if being able to claim CA meant that the person I was claiming for was also able to receive some form of respite care.

Medical appointments, mental load, no nights off, coping with your own health and needs around the person. Horrendous.

You clearly don’t understand disability.

I studied whilst claiming CA. It was never an issue.

I am disabled myself. I absolutely do understand disability.

Because they earn too much/work too many hours.

Because they get a pension.

Because they are a student of any kind.

or, the person with pip that they care for doesn’t get the care element of PIP

Then you would think that you would understand that everyone with a disability has a different experience.

@OwlRightThen did you? How did you manage that? I was caring for my mum while finishing my MA (which was entirely self taught/research- all the lectures/time at uni/placement etc was finished) and I applied to claim CA and was turned down because apparently if you are doing any academic work then you can’t possibly have 35hrs a week to be doing caring.

But that was 10 years ago so maybe it has changed?

@OwlRightThen oh I see, it’s because the university called it a full time course… even though the hours were nothing like full time.

As long as you are not studying for 21 or more hours a week you can claim CA.

X-posted.

@Turquoisflutterby do u care for someone? Do u know how completely isolating caring for someone can be? It's is sometimes easier to stay in, rather than go out. How family are normally busy with jobs and their own family. In other cultures it is still normally the women who are undertaking this care. Sometimes with v little other family support. If families from the Asian and Middle Eastern communities were all looking after their elderly members of the family, then why are there care homes and at home care existing in these countries?

so why are you trying to gatekeep a hierarchy of disability?

Carers allowance is a pittance, there’s no room to scale it to the corresponding disability, it’s one size fits all. It certainly isn’t fit criteria to judge someone else’s needs by.

The other part is medical care improved. My brother died at 3 years old, but today would have most likely lived into adulthood. Life expectancy was pretty grim for many conditions

Oh I do, but how do you care for a person if you live 200 miles away? My MiL is elderly 82 and has had a few falls now this year (4) but if you think she can have a carer just in case she falls I can tell you she can't. SS would never authorise it.

I''m simply pointing out that some people are scammers and are actually not caring for people but claiming they are. Please answer the question how do you care for a person for 35 hours a week whilst living 200 miles away?

That's interesting @Cornettoninja
I wasn't sure if it was fair to raise a point about someone else's disabled child (now sadly deceased) but I thought about it & I think I posted as I hoped it was clear it was really Cameron's experience of being a Carer that I meant. It's interesting that someone else has raised it in Parliament too. I do think that Politicians can have charmed lives / outsource the difficult bits but when your own child has such difficulites surly the opportunity is there to understand others experience a bit more? (not meant to be any kind of attack on DC, just sad really ).

‘Please answer’ - your writing as if I directly ignored a direct question. You posed a lot of questions in that post.

the only answer I have to your questions is another question to evidence how widespread any of these problems actually are? You’re sharing anecdotes that I personally have never, ever come across. It does lead me to wonder about your circle and whether you would agree that it’s probably more constructive to report those cases you find disagreeable than argue to remove support from people with a legitimate need.

um, you can’t care for someone from 200 miles away… but the people in your original post about not allowing each half of a couple to have caters allowance are a couple… presumably in the same house.

If your point had been you can’t care for someone for 35 hours a week if you live 200 miles away from them, I would have agreed with you.

@Alltheclogs, this is my original post. Clearing mentioning both if a person can't care for themselves effectively that they need 35 hours a week care from a carer, which is a lot of care, how can they care for another person for 35 hours a week AND referencing another poster who said a person claimed it for caring for his Aunt but lived 200 miles away.