Carers allowance breaches modern slavery laws surely

[Vatsallfolks]

This country has a minimum wage . It’s a fact . If you are over 21 years old it is £12.21 ph.

Therefore can somebody please explain why Carers Allowance is £83. 30 per week whilst stipulating that carers should be looking after their caree a minimum of 35 hours a week and then some .. which equates to £2.38 per hour .. and then .. we are ‘allowed’ to work another 18 hours.. (if we only could but we can’t as our cared for person actually doesn’t have a 36 hour cut off !!) just to equate to a minimum wage for 54 hour week ??
(when in fact many of us do a 189 hour week ? (24/7) which in reality is £2207 per week ..

so in essence e what I am saying is this . I could say NO .. I’m not doing it anymore.. and it will cost the govt a minimum of the minimum wage for him to be looked after .. but if don’t .. because I love him.. I had to give up my job to care for him .. which I have again because I love him .. but my God .. aren’t the Government taking the piss ?

Speaking as someone who had to fight our case all the way to the European Court of Human Rights, you make it sound as if the legal challenges are accessible. They are not. The current backlog of cases demonstrates that they are not. So what you say might be true in an abstract sense, but isn't the concrete experience of everyday life.

I was coming to say this.

providing unpaid care can be so unpredictable. I couldnt work as I need to be on ‘stand by’ for the person I care for.

Local authority councils shirk their ‘duties’ all the time though. And then blame spending cuts. I’ve fought with them countless times over their lack of help/support/what they are supposed to be doing. They just come up with excuse after excuse. It’s all very well saying they should be challenged, but when everything in your life has to be challenged, it becomes soul destroying.

That’s family life though isn’t it. Some cultures wouldn’t bat an eyelid, we wouldn’t have years ago, but now it seems different.

You’re preaching to the choir.

it shouldn’t be this way - but it is.

People either used the correct pathways to challenge or nothing happens.

It’s wrong, but at least there are pathways to resolution. Local Authorities depend on people not exercising their legal rights.

Now you generally need two incomes to provide for a family. That didn’t used to be the case.

I forgot to mention that prior to having to give up work to care for my disabled child, I was a paralegal.

I have sympathy with the OP. My FiL was repeatedly admitted to hospital (over 12 times in one year) when the LA carers who were popping in to see him (4 x daily) would call ambulances. He'd be released back to his home, and to the LA carers who didn't provide enough cover to keep him safe. I was arguing the legalities, with the support of a family member who's actually a solicitor, for 6 months straight, every other day. Adult Social Care just kept reaffirming that they didn't have any more carers available. They weren't lying. The LA is permanently advertising for carers. Eventually, the matter was 'resolved' when they transferred him to a nursing home while he was in a coma (and didn't have the capacity to refuse). No one expected him to come out of that coma, but he did. He was furious.

I don't know why you're insisting on arguing from a PoV that doesn't match any form of reality.

It took me over a year of fighting an LA get them to even open stage one of a complaint - two years to get to level 3 panel.

I and many others didn't have to go anywhere near a court.

Im not making it sound like anything.

But Complaints route, then ombudsman usually gains ground.

Not even trying isn’t going to do anything.

It’s shit. It’s wrong. But it’s something

It matches my reality.

And it matches the reality of many listings on the government ombudsman pages.

And it matches the reality of my former employer.

There are legal routes.

And given your relative was assessed as having capacity (your reference to the care home in a coma) he couldn’t be forced to accept any more support than he wished.

Lack of carers ij the LA’s books? Why was a personal budget not considered where he or his representative could hire employees from outside of the pool of LA carers? I was a PA for several years - the LA didn’t employ me.

I have three disabled kids;I got carers allowance.

I work 16 hours a week as that’s all I can get child care for.

Anyway with the bank holidays we’ve just I got a small uplift in my pay and now I’ve had my carers allowance stopped and for the sake of the additional £88 I earned that want me to pay them back £799.

I’m completely fucked financially now.

I’m still responsible for caring for my kids for the other 128 hours a week I’m not at work.

I think at a basic level it's because it's seen as part of our duty as family members to care for those who need it, rather the same way we care for children.

The state helps by giving top ups for these things but it's not seen as a salary as such.

I'm disabled. I'm also the last leaf on the family tree. When my parents die, I'll have no living relatives. The only people who will care about me are those who are paid to. Thats it.

This being a reality with no legal avenues for assisted dying (yet!) is terrifying.

Yes. I suspect this is going to become more and more of a problem in many ways. I sometimes wonder if government, in their eagerness to boost GDP, really thought about what would happen when it became necessary for families to have two incomes.

It would be quite a lot more scary if they were pushing assisted dying as an alternate to care funding.

I don't think the idea that families have obligations should preclude helping people without families. We have a tendency sometimes to be upset if someone else is getting more help than we are, but I am not sure society can afford to say they will support everyone to the same degree when they have other sources to draw on, including in terms of human connection. Needing more help shouldn't be something shaming or a problem, I don't see how we can realistically say that everyone's needs can be flattened out.

Agree its a low amount.

Hence No one should give up a job or cut down their hours, to be a carer without v careful consideration. Social services should step in , if the person needs more care...

The key word there is ‘should’.

Hi; sorry if this is a daft question, but are you not also entitled to universal credit to bring your income up to a minimum standard?

Bitchesbelike It's not a daft question, we do claim UC, PIP, Carers Allowance and he's in the Support Group for Contributions based ESA. He's also had a social care assessment and received direct payments to pay for respite care. I have a carers assessment carried out annually and dh has been assessed as needing 24 hour support. His older brother has the same condition and he is now a permanent resident in a local hospital paid for by (I presume) social services). My dh wants to live at home with me and I want him at home with me. He gets provided with some carers from our council and I get respite care. However, we have been told that there is not council funding to provide him with the full 24 hours care at home.

People who need 24/7 support, often lifelong or for decades do not need a 'basic' level of support. Nobody should be forced to give up their job, their livelihood and as in many cases their lifes all together to provide 24/7 cars for year and years without break and without financial compensation. It's absolutely not comparable to bringing up (non disabled) children. These children will become more independent over the years, there are nurseries, schools, wrap around childcare, holiday clubs. All these things still enable a parent to work. You cannot compare that in the least to proving extensive long-term care for a disabled family member, esp without the access to breaks/respite

I’ve not idea what your DH’s condition is but have you looked into continuing health care? It will depend on whether he has a primary health care need.

https://beaconchc.co.uk/how-we-can-help/free-information-and-advice-on-nhs-continuing-healthcare/

If yhd council have supported a 24/7 care assessment perhaps they can support you to go through the CHC process - I know of councils that have done so and helped people to get CHC funding.

The trouble is, if they paid carers the equivalent of minimum wage, a lot of people on low wages who have caring responsibilities would quit their jobs to become fulltime carers. Where's the money coming from? If caring became a means of earning a living then there would be a big uptick in the number of carers and in the number of people who needed care.

You probably aren't aware quite how your post reads that your blaming the disabled and their carers for their own situation. A little like an A&E doctor saying "Why didn't you see your GP ?"

you need to appreciate that it’s not the reality for everyone though. Just because you took them on and won, not everybody can. And they shouldn’t have to. I have challenged the LA many times, and gone all the way like you did, and didn’t win. They just blamed/claimed spending cuts.

I agree, it’s not as easy as saying ‘just challenge them’