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 ?

It is ti be used for the benefit of the child so that means anything and can included in bills etc as keeping a roof over a child's head benefits the child.

You don't have to be looking for a job if you claim carers allowance and universal credit

Same with foster care. You have no say in fee or allowance and you’re paid a pittance. Plus told you can’t take other jobs to earn more money. Then at 18 the child has no allowance paid at all so the carer is responsible.
I don’t mean to derail your thread op. I’m in complete agreement with you. Carers allowances are terrible.
if I earned minimum wage I’d have a very different lifestyle but sadly I don’t and probably never will.

People are being a little disingenuous here
If somebody is only claiming carers allowance then yes it is a pittance .
But if someone is also claiming UC which in cludes disability element plus DLA for the child nd yes despite whst some posters insist It's perfectly fine for the DLA to go into the family pot, all of this can add up to a not insignificant sum.

And you know that people who aren't on the state pension because they are (say) 45 years and not working due to full time caring duties only get carers allowance full stop ?

Given how expensive disability can be for some, this isn't always the case

@Bridget57

my friend is in the same situation, though they were offered a full time nursing care place in a care home or 20 hours per week in their home plus 4 weeks residential respite - 20 hours a week is cheaper than a full time care place but 24/7 home care is very very expensive. They have opted for the 20 hours for now

No but it's a lot more than just £83 / week ( for some at least)

Your "not insignificant amount" is relative though to the ever rising cost of living. The issue is the lack of financial independence for a carer who has to use less than 100 a week for all their personal expenses which they don't want to take from a tight family pot. It means no security, no financial planning ability and an uncertain future given the strict condionality of all benefits, meaning that if one changes, there is a domino effect on the rest, and suddenly debt starts spiralling.

One may argue that it's not the state's responsibility to help people long term, if there are theoretically other options available, but as many have pointed out here, theory and reality are two different animals.

This applies to the idea of challenging the statutory obligations of LAs and other agencies too. It's a long bureaucratic process and people with immediate and ever variable needs take priority for carers over wading through an unsympathetic and overly bureaucratic system that seems to be designed to test your commitment to the challenging over all else.

I know no system will ever be perfect but it's so far from even workable for so many it's tragic.

I'm a carer for my Disabled child BTW.

Then we both have experience of CA and benefits, and both know it's definitely not one size fits all.

An allowance, is not the same as a salary.

I do agree that it's extremely low though. Diabolical.

In our house everything goes into the family pot including my carers allowance ,UC,my dh,wages DLA i never said the system was perfect and I'm not going to divulge how much we get in benefits but it's more thsn my dh full time wage.

I know. I have for 2 teens with complex needs. What is your point?

I never said it was.

You do not need to live with a person to claim carers allowance

You do not need to be their relative

I wouldn't expect you to divulge anything and I'm glad you are apparently getting everything you need, as you definitely should be. I'm not having a go, I was just sharing my thoughts, and I'm sorry if I expressed them insensitively.

It's not a salary for paid work - it's a benefit to support people who are caring for their own family. It's a similar concept to child benefit

Agree that it's a pittance & impossible to live on if you are pre-retirement & not able to work at all.

You can't get your state pension and carers allowance so your post is factually incorrect.

I'm my husband's carer, have been for 35 years, and I get the SRP so can't get carers, couldn't get it when I was working as I earned too much. I'm a bargain to the country but my back is forever damaged and my heart is broken.

Not everybody who gets CA is claiming for a child or immediate family member.

Where did i say they were ?

I didn’t say you did. I was just pointing out that not everybody claims CA for a family member. Which means they wouldn’t get any of the additional benefits etc that you mentioned.

Somewhere there is a Tory SPAD who is getting unpleasantly aroused at how this thread is encouraging infighting among the serried ranks of the vulnerable. Before we have the inevitable stories from people who "know" a coachload of benefit scroungers (and that's just in their road) let's remember that we aren't the enemy.

Save your anger and your fury for the people that are to blame, not each other.

Sorry but that's nonsense. If your disabled child's need is for you to be at home caring for them then the disability allowance can absolutely pay for that. It's money coming into the household how is it any different to income.

What about someone in my position? I cared for my mum for several years. She refused to go into a home. She couldn’t tell you what year it was and forgot that I was upstairs changing her bed by the time I came down, but she never forgot how much she didn’t want to go into a home! Where was my ‘significant sum’ going into the old family pot? Nowhere. That’s where.

Hours and hours of housework, changing beds, admin, shopping, endless hospital visits and GP appointments. And that was WITH carers coming in three times a day. But of course the point was, she was my mum. And that’s what the government plays on when it comes to their attitude to carers. It’s your family. You love them. You should be a martyr and sacrifice yourself. Don’t be greedy, expecting money to put food on your own table and pay your own bills. And almost always women. Us women, with our guilt and our love and our sense of duty.