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

Yes they can- but if you are making a point relating to an exact situation it’s helpful if you point it out.

And it very much does count as income

Indeed, it’s also why it’s deducted from UC.

No, it’s deducted fully from UC as it’s a clashing benefit. If you work, your pay is only partially taken from uc, not your whole pay check. It’s not counted as income, it’s counted as a benefit.

@DickJagger I know that about Attendance Allowance. It is the equivalent of DLA for older people. Which is why I said PIP or Attendance Allowance.

In case anyone isn’t clear about CA and UC - every penny is taken from the latter if you claim the former.

I know that about Attendance Allowance. It is the equivalent of DLA for older people. Which is why I said PIP or Attendance Allowance

OK, however you said PIP and AA, not or.

@DickJagger Fine a mistake.

The point is if you have CA coming in, it is deducted from UC.

Whether they choose to call it a ‘clashing benefit’ or ‘income’ is irrelevant when they are taking it from you.

They are they only group that are expected to care for vulnerable people potentially 24/7 for less than £3 per hour.

Can you name any other groups that do this?

I'm interested in how you feel disabled people can adjust their disabilities so they don't require care any more?

The point is that it’s fully deducted from UC, unlike a ‘recognised pay from employment’ where 55p from each £1 is deducted. It’s a key point to changing the CA system/pay when it’s a pointless recognition of the work non professional carers do. Since most of us claim both CA and UC, it’s a somewhat irrelevant ‘pay’. The disparity needs to be pointed out at any opportunity.

Yes but people on UC, subject to.any disabilities of course, have the capacity to find work, accrue a pension, improve their circumstances. They can generate extra income.

Carers in many cases due to the nature of the care required cannot. They are trapped in a never ending cycle of poverty with no way out.

Essentially, if you’re a carer on UC, you’re paying tax on your circumstances, certainly in no way profiting from it. All this ‘there isn’t an endless pot of money’ posts - they take back what they give from the DWP, isn’t that a result for you.

Yet if non professional carers were paid a full time wage, we’d actually be paying tax into the economy whilst also being recognised economically viable people, how is that not a better solution?

And Carer's Allowance is also 'taxable' income unlike UC, not that I've ever earned enough through paid work since becoming a Carer to reach the tax threshold.

Some parts of UC are also taxable. I have paid tax on it.

@NoisySnail - honestly didn't know that, what parts of UC are taxable please?

This. £81 per week is a disgrace.

And don’t get me started on so-called ‘young carers’. Children should never be expected to care for adults because the government is too stingy to pay for it. We’re supposed to be a civilised society.

I am if not actually physically caring and associated tasks, available to care 24/7 and have been for a while. At NMW, that would achieve the fabled MN 6 figure income 😁.

In the midst of this, I'm also doing what medically qualified friends tell me are 3rd year nursing tasks, including dressings that the DNs don't have capacity to do every day but are needed for optimal healing.

I'll carry on doing this while I have breath, but please don't start handwringing to me and others like me about "endless pots of money" not being available while people are willingly sacrificing themselves and often their health, while being viewed as lesser beings for the privilege.

Added my signature to the petition

And I've just signed the other petition, there's 2 - one for reviewing the overpayments 'anomaly' as recently highlighted on MSM (currently requiring many more signatures to get to the minimum 10k that gets a govt response and the other petition asking for Carers to receive 50% of NMW @ 35 hours.

This currently has more signatures @ 13,657 so has received a Govt response, which is stated at the link below. And it is pretty much the same claptrap that many pp's here have stated - basically 'suck it up you filthy carers' and Parliament has already debated this (more obsfucation as they debated only the 'overpayment anomaly' eg: the 'other petition' which is now moot).

The link below might only be personable to me, so if you want to read the response in full, the easiest way would be to sign the petition first.

https://petition.parliament.uk/signatures/142453827/signed

Well that makes one of us interested in what the other person has to say...

If you are incapable of responding without deliberately misrepresenting what someone else writes or means you should probably sit these discussions out

I too would be interested to know what ‘adjustments’ disabled people and their carers should make for theses ‘changes coming down the line’?

YANBU. Reading this sounds like my life, word for word, can relate to every sentence. I care for my son also and the carers allowance rate is disgraceful.

There seems to be a lot getting lost in translation. I don’t think anybody thinks of carers as being less than. It is important to disaggregate how much value is placed on carers from how much govt can afford to pay.

We do not have a pot of gold to fund an increase in CA from £81 to £1,800 (as somebody suggested) or even a quarter of that. The difference of opinion is mostly over affordability, not whether carers deserve more.

Where there is a division seems to be over whether carers save the state money. That idea presupposes that our family members are primarily the responsibility of the state and not the family. Some people feel the elderly and disabled are first and foremost the responsibility of their family, and the state is a lesser partner with a lesser contribution.

Personally, I think carers allowance needs to be means tested so the limited resources can be directed to where they are most needed. FWIW my aunt was a carer to my granny. She applied for CA because she was ‘entitled’ to it despite getting family money which more than covered her loss of salary. This has somewhat shaped my view as I’m sure they weren’t alone in gaming the system.

And I've just written to my MP about this as suggested by the petition and spurred on by both the negative responses and those also at the coalface of Caring.

And I don't disagree with means-testing a household because as Stormin rightly states, for some, the household has a lot of other non-benefit income coming in. But many do not, the Carer is solely responsible for everything including being the 'breadwinner'.