To think very few carers will benefit from the “ increase “ in carers

[Ionlytrymybest]

reading the budget and I can see some carers may benefit
those who can work along side up to the maximum amount allowed of earnings or those with partners who work full time with a wage good enough to not be on UC.

but many full time carers are on universal credit, so the increase in these cases is surely pointless they won’t see an increase in their monthly money at all as it is deducted 1.00 for 1.00 from Universal credit ?

so unless they change the 1.00 for 1.00 deductions it’s not really that big of a change ?

I should add obviously bbc was wrong so we are working on the basis now of the increase in hours someone can work before losing carers allowance.
Which of course benefits some people and we are happy for those people but we can still be upset for those who have no choice not to work because of 24/7 care. We can also still state those including the ones who work alongside deserved an increase .

Totally agree that more needs to be done -

The £81.90 a week allowance goes to people who care for someone who is older or disabled for more than 35 hours a week.
Currently, carers who get the benefit are only allowed to earn up to £151 a week. Anyone who goes over that, even by a few pennies, faces a cliff edge, which means they lose all their allowance.
The government can then clawback any overpayment. It is a confusing system which has left some already vulnerable people facing significant debts.
Now, carers will be able to earn an extra £45 a week – allowing overall earnings of up to £10,000 a year - without losing any of the benefit.
The chancellor has also said the financial cliff-edge will be looked at.

there is obviously a difference in the overall house hold income of carers to their children than those who are carers to adults outside their household because they would be only receiving carers rather than the additional disability elements on UC and the dla.

but as it stands
universal credit for a highly disabled child ( because their is 2 levels of disablity element on UC )

is around 950 universal credit a month plus rent element - which varies depending on your rent and the local allowance. Rent element doesn’t cover all of private rent prices in any area. So then some also comes out of the 950. this amount is also after carers being deducted. So woukd around 320 more before carer deductions:

dla for high rate care and low rate mobility around 520 a month. - this is regardless of someone is working or had a husband that works etc it’s not income based.

then the usual child benefit.

it's bloody ridiculous. I work 18h but earn quite a bit above NMW. I would have to cut my hours to 8h to qualify and I cannot do my job in so few hours. Both of my DC have complex needs. I currently provide 24/7 suicide watch whilst squirrelling through my hours from home. working absolutely is killing me but I cannot afford to live on CA.

They should really have increased CA to 35h of NMW. If we do this work on behalf of the government, they should just pay that. So much focus if carers who manage to work alongside. when will any government realise that caring for someone 35h or more is work. arseholes.

The thing is how do you even make a point it’s not like we can go on strike they know this 🤣

It's a long one but I'd like to get this off my chest if anyone is willing to listen?

As a fellow carer I'm really pleased that the earnings limit is going up for those carers who can work, and that the government is also looking into the problem of the 'cliff edge' cut off point for those earnings. So far, so good.

However there is absolutely nothing for me as a full-time carer. I care 24/7 for my profoundly disabled, now young adult, DC who is at home full-time. As a result I cannot take on any paid work. I do feel that carers like me are the forgotten carers, often hidden behind closed doors.

I did have a career before my DC was born. So far I have lost at least £600,000 in lost earnings and also in the future I will only get a tiny fraction of the workplace pension I would have had. At the same time I have probably saved the state £5 million in residential care costs by instead caring for my DC myself at home.

In return for that 24/7 care and sacrifice, I currently receive £81.90 per week Carers Allowance, which works out at about 48p an hour. Very reluctantly I have to rely on Universal Credit but, as others have said, every penny of my Carers Allowance is deducted from the Universal Credit, leaving me with about £227 a month.

When I start getting the small workplace pension at 60, it will be just enough to mean I will no longer be entitled to any Universal Credit. In one way that will be a boost for me psychologically - not to have to rely on and deal with the Universal Credit system - but I am concerned about the impact on things like help with Council Tax, eligibility for a social broadband tariff and potentially just being over the threshold for paying income tax. That could all make me even worse off. Because Carers Allowance is taxable, if I do have to pay tax then, for providing 24/7 care at age 60+, I will only receive Carers Allowance of £65.52 per week, which works out at 39p an hour.

It gets even worse for carers when we start receiving the State Pension. Carers aren't allowed to receive Carers Allowance and the State Pension together. That means that for providing 24/7 care at the age of 67+ I'll receive absolutely nothing in Carers Allowance at all. The small workplace pension will mean I won't be entitled to Pension Credit either, which I understand is the gateway to help with winter fuel costs, Council Tax and so on.

Being a 24/7 carer is full of love, but it is also back breaking, soul destroying, exhausting, lonely and full of fear for the future. Is what we give and give up not worth more than between 48p an hour and nothing?

This really frustrates me. Family Carers are taking so much of a burden away from the state and it really isn't recognised. We should be helping them so much more and they often still miss out on respite care or PA care as indicated by the little boys mum earlier just because ttey fundamentally can't get folk to take on the job - and when family do its a kick in the teeth tokenism for pay and as others have said neither here nor there is on universal credit

This thread has confused me more than anything.

I’m now wondering why I’m claiming cares allowance when carers element seems exactly the same but not classed as “income” ?

I had to enter my carers Allowance as income for DS’s uni applications which was confusing. If I was was just receiving carers element I imagine there would be no income to enter?

Protesting I guess.

Or we write in droves to our local MPs, but will they take much notice? Probably not.

Because it's my husband I care for and his PIP, every single penny of it, is needed to keep the roof over our head and pay the bills. There is no separate or spare amount that he could bung me!

You also have to fight for the hours and the right care as well.
it took 8 years of fights to get any sort of nursing care for DC.
they are medically sick and require nursing care, including IV fluids / IV medication etc
when we were first granted 8 hours a week respite we were quickly informed they wasn’t nursing hours and only carers hours so they would not be allowed to run any of their fluids / iv meds etc but then was told not entitled to nurses at home.

whole system is a mess.

It is important to claim even if it is then deducted. It pays Class 1 NI credits which count towards your State Pension and other contributions based benefits. Carer Credits, which is the UC alternative, only pays Class 3 NI contributions.

carers element is less than carers allowance and is included in your overall “ UC amount “ which is then deducted 55p per 1.00 after the 400 s month threshold is met. :)

You should still get carers element on UC. You should be claiming both.
the carers allowance then gets deducted 1.00 for 1.00.
you would out about 100.00 better off claiming both.

Essentially any household that has an income that's low enough to qualify for Universal Credit will be affected by this (excluded, to use your phrase).

If you're in a low income household but have savings of more than £16,000 - maybe a house sale, inheritance, divorce settlement etc, than you won't qualify for Universal Credit. In that case, you will be entitled to receive full Carer's Allowance provided you earn/work less than the allowed threshold.

So to answer your question, it's not exclusively single parents that will be affected, and not every single parent - but most of them.

Single parents will be disproportionately affected but there are plenty of people in two-parent households that will be affected too, particularly if one or more of the parents has a disability. So you could probably argue that disabled individuals who provide care to others will also be disproportionately affected.

Basically, the households that possibly are in most of the need of the support are the ones that won't benefit from the change.

@TwentyFourSevenCarer Are you claiming SMI Council tax discount for your offspring? You are also entitled to a discount as live in carer for them. It should reduce CT by at least 50% depending on your Council area.

You are right, the system is appalling. None of the information and help needed is readily available. It makes doing an already difficult job even harder.

This budget was never going to make anyone feel better off, even those on the lowest incomes who were most likely to vote Labour.

This will benefit one small group of carers - those who work between 12 and 16 hours a week but also have a partner who earns too much for them to claim UC. Other than that, nearly all carers are also claiming UC!

There is a lot wrong with carer’s allowance, but this isn’t the only group who will benefit. There are other sub-sections of the carer population who will benefit. For example, single carers who are able to work part time but have capital over the UC limit. Another example, single carers without children who aren’t eligible for the housing element caring for someone outside their household e.g. a parent so aren’t eligible for UC because their earnings and CA deductions wipe out the UC elements they would be entitled to.

Yes, the usual ableist approach that if you’re disabled, you’re fit for nothing. Our doctors’ surgery told me my husband possibly be a carer as he’s disabled himself and the government says the same.
But when it comes to paid work, it’s a different story! Of course you can find work from your hospital bed! 🙄

The work allowance is only £404 for those with the housing element. For those without the housing element it is £673. And not all UC have a work allowance.

This sounds right, it should benefit us as my husband will be able to drop his hours to 16, to care more for his mother, while I continue working full time, as I get the higher wage, but it seems unfair for single people.

Yes it is. You might mean your carers element but that's a completely different benefit to carers allowance so isn't relevant to this thread.

Their logic is ridiculous isn't it?!

The thing is there's such a wide spectrum of illness and disability symptoms out there, that one person's strength is another person's weakness.

I have fibromyalgia and hypermobility and struggle massively with mobility, concentration, fatigue etc, but I'm still able to care for my ASD daughter as most of her needs are cognitive, so I can help support her emotionally, socially etc, and she does things for me like get things from another room (when she's up for it!) and I have to guide her a lot to pick things up from the floor after playing, as I'm not able to bend easily and regularly. I'm pretty sure as she gets into her teens, she'll be helping me a lot with housework and I'll be helping her navigate her unique world. So I can be disabled and also a carer, and both come with their own different sets of financial needs.

The other thing I forgot to add, is that a disabled person caring for another disabled person, isn't the two of them out and about thriving in the world and therefore ability to care through love, equals ability to work and not need financial support....it's literally leaning on one another like crutches and surviving/hobbling their way through life.

Absolutely! My husband is physically disabled, the rest of us are variously neurodivergent so we all do what we can to help each other.
I’d hoped for a bit better understanding now we no longer have a Tory govt. but disability discrimination is so deeply entrenched.