Carers Allowance should be increased

[Noras]

Recent events on Mumsnet has made me even more upset about continuing to be a carer for my adult son. There are many carers out there doing the job voluntarily. Their kids are adult and there is no duty of care owned by adults. Moreover there is no asset against which the state can claim against for social care. The decision to care for our off spring is a fervent belief this is best for the time being.

Whilst my son lives at home I get £81 carers allowance a week. If my son lived in supported living I would

Be able to charge £15 per hour carers rate (including holiday and pension).

Be free to choose my hours and never have to worry about cover to go out - that is the States duty of care

Can opt never to have to complete a pip form or universal credit form again - leave it to another carer!

So the push is for me to want my son either on social housing or supported living

Caring duties include

Sourcing and recruiting PA / interview / draft advert and check applicants etc

Send out contracts to PA’s

Chase and send in timesheets

Train PA on how to deal with DS

Draft comments and arrange attendance at EHCP reviews. Chase updated EHCP and check it for amendments and liaise with council etc

Apply for transport for college - if needs be advocate. Liaise college and transport and taxi driver for changes of which there are many
Weekly exchanges of chase up and changes

apply for Pip - complete lengthy form. Be available for interview and conduct interview - DS clearly can’t

Universal credit - apply - argue legal points if necessary - administer funds - set up bank account for DS and administer it via a monintjon or poa

Care

Take for hairdressing appointments
Cut finger and toe nails
Hold tissue and encourage to blow nose as required
prompt shaving and if needs be husband shaves him
grapple with him and insist clothes are changed
laundry
take to dentist and keep eye on teeth cleaning
laundry
clear blocked toilet
prompt meds when constipated or asthmatic and hands on care with cold as he can’t blow nose

Supervision

Stop overeating and monitor diet
Stop crazy eating eg microwaved salad or eating microwaved tuna and sweetcorn at midnight
check his desire to experiment in kitchen
discuss and practice food cookery and what he will do at residential
Ensure healthy diet because that would not otherwise occur
Stop him cutting bread rolls whilst in hand
shopping/ clothing

do all clothes shopping
check wardrobe periodically to ensure shoes js clothes all fit still - he cannot seem to vocalise that need well

Toileting

Be on hand to unblock toilet and clean mess

Activities

Organise all his activities to encourage socialisation eg disabled group or drama group - this includes research for holiday activities

Get debrief form Pa re activity

Liaise with social groups eg one council one needs to know if taxi required weekly etc

Receive feedback form groups re how he is doing/ accessing community

Help with social disabled group so organise an event or two ( to make these things happen)

Take to the gym to swimming to maintain health - this involves micromanagement in say swimming pool

Take out on bus to train and persevere with this
Make him experience busy bus times

Train how to do shopping and wait for change

math skills - ongoing - mental maths an issue due to lack of working memory on 2 and 4 percentile - yet he can do algebra and has a gcse!

Try to train to use Apple Watch as he won’t wear a tracker ( we bought it for him with our own money!)

training - social interaction eg on dog walk or in shops etc

Also keep up to date on all learning activity opportunities and be excellent welfare / eduction lawyers advocates

Finally be there every evening and night due to his anxieties and vulnerabilities unless relieved by PA or activities so I CAN HAVE A GLASS OF WINE

Pay rate £81 per week

as opposed to several hundred for fewer hours work and shared load in supported living / social housing

I quoted Government stats.

Mumsnet is not representative.

Without meaning to sound uncaring - our society wouldn’t collapse - the lives of those needing care would.

OP you could add the National petition for this to your OP.

it’s being advertised by caters first and dementia carers count and loads of other charities.

But they’re not going to down tools. Since time immemorial society has operated by caring for family and friends.

As for your second paragraph that’s said about everything on here - education, special needs, pensions, hospitals, mental health support, social care, all types of benefits. It isn’t just ‘if only we could find the money for this one thing’, there’s loads of areas in desperate need so it makes sense to give a little bit to all of them rather than everything to just one.

Who is ‘they’? Do you think Labour will increase carer’s to 25k a year? If not; why not?

But our economy can’t support big business selling huge assets for billions having taken wads of grants worth millions during Covid which they did not pay back?

How many private equity companies have sold assets since Covid and not paid back.

Thing is carers are an easy target or the disabled whereas big business their affairs are too complex.

Did you know a well known coffee chain pays workers minimum wage but used a loan agreement to a parent company ( created a loan at high interest) to avoid ( legally) corporation tax. The workers are low paid and have to claim universal credit from the gov and the company remits its taxes to a more favourable tax regime. After some pressure they cleared the debt.

However for mums net average who have sat no exams in tax it’s easier to pick up the disabled or their carers. Look around you…. You are being duped all over.

How many care homes are large outfits that off shore. Their workers wages are topped up by benefits and they off shore the profit and overcharge private customers to make up any shortfall in council funding.

But instead of looking at the colossal flow of money to places like Lichtenstein we look at the disabled and pay carers peanuts.

I

Or why don’t nasty minded prejudiced fuckwits with zero insight into being disabled or being a carer to a disabled relative bugger off instead?

Before my son was born I was sitting CTA exam level 2 in tax - sadly that all went down the tubes. However I do read as much about where companies remit taxes and it’s scary stuff….

Or and we all know the drill - buy company cheap … mortgage company - declare a dividend of a few million - have largest shareholder as wife living in some non tax place or off shore - bankrupt company - keep dividend and the government loses the debt of NI and tax despite being priority in bankruptcy but also has to pay all redundancies etc

So we can afford all that sort of stuff

That's incredibly naive. I'm not sure you've thought this through at all.

The NHS would come to a grinding halt. Can't get a bed if it's blocked by someone who can't be discharged.

The knock on effect would ripple throughout society rapidly.

If it was remotely possible to prevent off shoring we would’ve done it many moons ago, probably when Labour was in government. You can’t unfortunately as it stifles the nature of international business which overall gives us many more benefits than drawbacks. Literally no country has managed it.

Our corporation tax is higher than Scandinavian countries.

The top 1% pay 30% of all income tax.

I really do understand your point of view but there’s no magic tax that will solve it unfortunately.

CA isn't really a replacement for being a full time carer as many people claiming carers allowance still have paid carers coming in too.

I would recommend that once an adult for those with severe needs who will never be able to live semi independently even, people start to talk to social services about supported living options in your area. It can take quite a while to get all the paperwork in place as you need financial attorney from the court of protection (far harder than the kind you use later in life when you nominate someone for you) to get a personal budget in place for the young person and a supported living scheme that's a good match - typically houses with 3-4 young adults work well. Took around 8 months here and applied at 21.

They might not down tools voluntarily. They might burn out. They might commit suicide. They might inadvertently or purposefully harm their charge at the extreme end of the scale out of sheer desperation. In fact, an elderly chap (70s) is currently being tried for attempted murder for reporting himself for putting a pillow over his mother's face in sheer desperation because she was dying from broncho-pneumonia(her actual COD on post mortem). She was n her 90s and he wasn't getting much help it seems.

In the case of children with high needs it's not just the emotional toll, or the physical toll. Things like people from the services you can access implying your care is substandard or conditions are your fault really don't help. I've seen stories on here - people posting in a panic because finally a referral has gotten through to SS and it's couched in terms of child protection before in depth analysis of the actual situation is done. And the time it all takes. And the lack of clear communication to "clients" and between agencies that can never be adequately addressed through complaints procedures, which requires bandwidth carers often do not have.

All of this on top of everything that the OP has spelled out.

Children and adults requiring care at this sort of level are not dissimilar in needs. Cognitive decline in adults renders them child like. Lifespan is the main difference.

I am in awe of parents dealing with this, especially in the current climate. My experience is on the elderly side, and while arduous I cannot begin to compare it to the experience of parents. I am humbled.

However, the point about morals and social justice not being how it works, it's budgets that are important points to a serious problem with society as a whole don't you think?

I'm a single mum claiming Carer's Allowance and UC. I'm not able to work due to being a ft carer, so the UC, DLA and Carers Allowance make up our income. The Carer's Allowance is deducted pound for pound from my UC award, so if it was increased it wouldn't make any difference to my income, as my UC award would just be decreased by the same amount. The only reason I claim Carer's Allowance at all is because it offers Class 1 NI contributions which is better than the Class 3 Contributions I get on UC.

If Carer's Allowance was increased, the people who would be helped wouldn't be the poorest who depend on benefits like me, but people who aren't able to claim UC - this would be because they have a partner who might be on a very high wage like a mum I know, or those who have savings over £16k, like another mum I know who has a second property and a large amount in savings.

I didn't say they would, I said they could. The legal duty is on the state, not the family or friends.

They provide an invaluable service. There must be some reciprocity. Quid pro quo. It cannot be compared with other benefits.

Would you be happy to work for less than £3 per hour?

+1. YABU - It should not be increased. It's not economically viable.

I think your Maths isn't Mathing.

@mitogoshi
CA isn't really a replacement for being a full time carer as many people claiming carers allowance still have paid carers coming in too.

you realise that many who need care need that 24/7. No employee in any other area will have to work and be available 24/7 all year round - wouldn't be legal to start with. Why do you think having a paid carer doing some of the caring work means an unpaid family carer won't be caring at least 35h/week? Did it not cross your tiny mind that some people need round the clock care and not just 7h per day????

I don't think it is always easy to protect the vulnerable. I used to work in adult care, the number of families who have the mobility car so they can visit (about once every six months) was shocking. No one seems to be able to stop it.

I'm my husband's carer, as a pensioner the CA was stopped so I know it isn't much and you have to jump through hoops to get it. I just think there is also abuse.

I’ll go against the grain here. Also the parent of an adult child with ASD/ADHD/OCD/GAD who still needs our support and another adult child with physical disabilities who requires our support, and with other ‘normal’ (whatever that is) adult kids.

My late mum always drilled into me that you don’t have kids unless you can support them in the worst case scenario. She used to use no arms, no legs, blind and deaf as a scenario when talking to me about having kids. That you don’t have a child unless you are able and prepared to deal with that as the scenario. She meant being able to cope physically, emotionally and financially without assistance as you can’t rely on it. Anything above that would be ‘a bonus’. I think that’s really sage advice and where it goes astray a lot of the time as people just think having kids will produce a ‘typical’ child and if not they are at the mercy and relying on support that may or may not be there - again physically, emotionally and financially.

Edited to add this is exactly the same advice I pass on to my own children.

CA is abysmal. Mine will stop next week when I go back to work, part-time. The fact that you are penalised for working and have CA stopped is terrible.

But it isn’t work in the traditional sense. I’m sorry to sound brutal but it isn’t and there is no way we can afford to pay 1.5 million people £25,000 a year. We have 1 in 6 out of work completely, worrying National debt, a huge amount of people with ‘needs’ and the problem is getting worse.

Carer’s allowance isn’t the only thing they subsist on either. In many cases there is universal credit, DLA, cost of living alongside free NHS care. Look at the thread by a lady with 2 disabled children on here who was receiving 63k a year.

But it isn’t work in the traditional sense

Sorry? Caring isn't work in the "traditional sense"? How's that?

But it isn’t work in the traditional sense. I’m sorry to sound brutal but it isn’t and there is no way we can afford to pay 1.5 million people £25,000 a year. We have 1 in 6 out of work completely, worrying National debt, a huge amount of people with ‘needs’ and the problem is getting worse.

caring 24/7 is work. and a bloody hard one on top. of course we can afford to pay carers properly. It's a choice by the government and the wider society to treat carers like the lowest of the lowest.

That's absolutely terrible you only get that much. It feels so out of order, as his PIP etc might cover the PA for some hours and some expenses, but it's almost like they expect you to fill in the massive gaps for a near pittance.
What expenses would the government incur if people didn't have loving family or friends acting as carers? They should give you at least living wage per hour for care you can clearly prove you supply. Surely someone with no family carers would need to be in residential at a much higher cost? It's a disgrace.

Because it’s not economically productive. It’s domestic labour.

and if I refuse to do anymore "domestic labour" then the state will have to sort it and that will cost FAR more than a pathetic £81 a week.