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

Pip and attendance allowance are paid to the disabled person not the carer.

Even if you are eligible for UC and many aren't if you're single it's less than £400 per month for a standard allowance. They give you a carers element but then deduct your CA £ for £.

Your total income would be just under £600 per month if you had a mortgage.

Could you manage on £600 per month?

Which is what the carers allowance helps with.

The one thing that gets me is that by providing unpaid care it really does your ability to get a meaningful job that allows the flexibility to provide care as and when it is frequently required. For those saying we're entitled to other benefits, yes many of us single/lone carers of working age are but if you receive Carer's Allowance, and the person receiving care is an adult, you're entitled to about £222 UC a month. That's it. No more. If the person you give care to is a young adult then they can get flat-rate UC (rate depending on age), Limited Capability doesn't mean any extra payments for new claims - it just means the Job Centre don't hound the disabled person to get a job.

Try living on that UC + CA pcm - I absolutely would rather be working but just a few hours wfh here and there is the best I can get.

No

You may have no other income at all but a relatively small amount of savings so.you are ineligible for UC.

Exactly. This is what I've been trying to explain.

Many carers live in abject poverty.

I’ll assume the stuff about executors and siblings is in your other thread (which I haven’t read).

It is a scandal op.The allowance is paltry. The hoops you have to jump through are ludicrous and the very idea that people are having to pay it back is a travesty.

Right. So the government is expecting people to

a) give up their jobs and their earning and saving potential (saving the government a massive amount of money)

b) expecting carers (who let’s face it, are predominantly women) to be dependent on someone else- give up their financial security and independence, their pension contributions, their skills and qualifications to name a few, again so that the government can save a massive amount of money.

Taking into account the massive amount of money carers save the state, and all the personal and financial sacrifice they make while doing it- a maximum of £2.30 an hour is a reasonable remuneration?

I agree it would be shit. But when you decide whether to have children you know this is a possibility.

I agree it is a low amount. But people do have to live on UC without carers allowance.

Right, so people are living comfortably on sub £250 plus carers allowance are they?

Omg that is absolutely tragic. I don’t think people realise the mental toll caring for someone with such complex needs takes. Most of my friends with kids like ours have had marriage breakdowns or they’re younger kids can’t wait to leave home to get away from the chaos.. It’s so hard on the whole family. So very sad .

No. Just as people long term sick are not living comfortably on the amount of UC they receive either.

A) They remove carers allowance from uc £ for £.

b) people on UC who don’t get carers allowance are not carers and therefore potentially can get a job/another job/a better job- they have options that carers don’t.

Carers do a brilliant job, often in difficult circumstances. Are they the only group of people who save our society a fortune? As hard as it is to hear, no, they are not. There is a limited pot of money. Times have changed and people need to make adjustments for the challenges we have now and what is coming down the line.

And CA gets taken off £1 for £1 for UC, so makes it somewhat pointless and completely takes away from it meaning to be a recognition that your income is limited by being an unpaid carer.

Ive not read the whole thread, but CA as a payment and system is completely unacceptable. It should be paid at full 35 hours minimum wage at least, it should be a recognised service/job with paperwork. As it is, those on CA are severely limited in work options, have increasingly empty CVs, many of us will find difficult returning to any employment if and when our caring duties lessen/end, many of us will be left with longterm mental and physical problems due to lack of any support over the years (leading to falling back into the benefits system anyway). Never mind the personal economic stress, bad credit, unable/not allowed to save money, limited housing options in an already awful housing situation. Oh and to top it off, the judgment from the rest of society for relying on benefits to live, despite working out backsides off day and night as any paid care worker.

Non professional carers needs to be recognised as work, it’s as simple as that.

Ohhhh so it’s a race to the bottom? No one should fight for carers to be treated better because other people are treated badly?

If your bloke stubs his toe do you kick the wall so it’s ‘fair’?

Universal credit for anyone without children is always low. But no one really cares. And no people on long term sick can not always just get a job.

Im not sure I’ve just seen it on LinkedIn - haven’t clicked it.

Agree. I gave up work 18 years ago because working and caring for our son was not possible. I was having to pick him up several times a week due to behaviour and it not being safe for him to travel on the bus. Mornings if his mood was bad I’d have to take him too. An hour round trip. If he had a seizure I’d pick him up and then he’d be home for a day or two. He went to residential college after school but was home weekends and holidays so I needed to be flexible then also. Now he’s full time residential and I’m trying to find a job that is flexible so he can still come home for a week every 6 weeks or so. I’m in my 50’s now though with no real skills except caring. I don’t need to work but it would definitely help. It’s a daunting prospect though but I’ll keep looking.

I didn’t say they could- you were talking about people who only receive UC, you didn’t mention people who are ill or disabled.

There’s been an argument over the paltry amount full time carers receive for years.

Its never improved though, through different governments.

If all carers gave up their roles tomorrow, and threw in over to the state, the country would be in shit order.

We need to pay them properly.

So the desire is to increase carers allowance to £10,410 a year?

People who are ill can be on universal credit as well. Unable to work, but only getting UC and no PIP.

PIP and Attendance Allowance is supposed to pay for care.
Carers allowance is a small payment in recognition of peoples role. It is not supposed to be pay. And anyone on a very low income will get other benefits on top of carers allowance

This is nonsense. It isn't "recognition of a role" - what guff! And it very much does count as income. Which is why you aren't allowed to earn over a certain amount if you are able to take on other paid employment.

Attendance allowance is also only available for those over state pension age.