Does this Universal Credit amount sound wrong?

[FryingPanWithJam]

Total amount in UC is £2421.40 a month

Income is £1950 a month, Partner. I’m unemployed as a carer, I get carers allowance

Two kids on higher rates of DLA

Rent is £930

I really, really worry about being overpaid! I wasn’t even aware I could claim it until someone mentioned it at a support group. I am really shocked

I live 'oop norf', not London and basic elderly care was £25/hr each carer last year - knocking up £200 per day for a total of just 2 hours care per day - £6k ish per month but capped to £2,200 by the council - so they were funding £4k for this. These carers were also basic elderly social carers - not trained in child care, nor in highly disabled care. My daughter works, again up north, in small residential home for adults, who just can't live alone but don't have significant needs - I believe it's around £2k a week for these guys- this without additional days out for example or treats for them personally. For those saying carers get less, definitely true, my daughter herself gets minimum wage on days and actually less at night as they mainly do sleep. But still these are still the charges for the people requiring this service.
Would it be preferable economically to host these children, or preferable for the parents to care? Social/council/gov't are desperate for family to pick up to save them having to as services are so stretched. They provide little other help at the minute with centres having closed, respite impossible etc. The very, very least to be done is recognise the financial costs and provide some support - especially considering the savings the public services make on that.
There is no economic argument and surely no humane societal one against these figures.
This is not normal or average parenting but I don't think some people are understanding the intense care needed and the incredible pressure the parents are under - many reasons why they might break and many physical and mental health impacts on the parents, so let's not add financial strain. And obviously this financial support is actually not massive considering the additional costs for the children, let alone the care, but also very obviously never ever worth seeing your children like this.
All best wishes to you OP and your family and I hope the support finally allows something you want for your family as well as need.

They’re not sustainable. That’s the only point I’m making on here, not criticising the OP personally. We have reached a point where roughly 1 in 10 15-year-olds are, according to DWP, so disabled they need disability benefits. Is this even remotely representative of your life experience? If you consider just over half of claims are accepted, how many people are actually trying to claim for their 15 year old? 1 in 5 or 6? The numbers are absolutely astonishing and what’s even more astonishing is the rise is driven almost exclusively by ASD/ADHD/both. Nobody will propose urgent investigation because it’ll be shouted down - but virtually everyone in government is baffled and thinking the same thing. What on earth has happened, how have we allowed it to get this far and how do we crunch the numbers so the entire country doesn’t end up solely existing to support a large minority of individuals. By then I expect all councils will be bankrupt.

“By then I expect all councils will be bankrupt.”

I think they already are.

8%, which is what the most recent report states, is 1 in 12.5, not 1 in 10.

The proportion receiving HRC/HRM has actually dropped. The number receiving HRM has not increased over the last 10 years.

The projections are such they will reach 1 in 10 in the next 18 months or so anyway. The proportion has dropped but the overall figure hasn’t - it’s just less proportionally because of the sheer number of people claiming for comparatively mild things.

If they’re not then they’re in emergency measures. I have to be honest that’s why I’m baffled when people say there isn’t enough focus on special care or SEN - it seems to be focussed on to the exclusion of everything else in some areas

That has absolutely nothing to do with severely disabled children and their parent carers though

I think you will find I said proportion for HRC/HRM. But the number receiving HRM has not increased.

Of course it does because the more people claim the less money there is. It’s all basic stuff. The number of claimants is wildly out of control, hence the bill being terrifying and we are now faced with cutting it or going under.

I'm not sure whether you work in benefits as I do but agree the bill is terrifying and the number of people claiming. My view on it may be skewed though as I'm dealing with multiple people every day calling our team for advice on claiming UC, disability benefits, pension credit etc .With Uc an awful lot is just going to line the pockets of private landlords which needs to be addressed. Hopefully the government will invest in more social housing. It's a perfect storm of millions more people not working and many claiming disability and out of work benefits, and obviously less tax revenue coming in to pay for those claiming. One in ten young people coming up to working age on disability benefits is going to have a big effect if they cannot work along long term with huge numbers of young people already not working. And all the while an ageing population living longer with more chronic health conditions, a failing NHS and not enough tax payers unless we increase immigration which people don't want. The future looks very bleak to be honest. This ticking timebomb has been ticking away for years though and no government has addressed it properly. Now it is about to go off and the aftermath won't be pretty. The most vulnerable such as op's family need to be protected but there will need to be a lot of changes.

@Miley1967 if you can see it why can’t successive governments I wonder? Or are they just too scared to tackle it?

I honestly think past governments have just buried their heads in the sand. No one wants to be the bad guys cutting benefits or making the rules tougher I guess but it has just snowballed now to the extent that someone is going to have to do something. As I say though I'm not sure if my view is skewed because of my job and the huge increase I've seen in people trying to claim ?

I don’t work in benefits but in another area where the scale of the benefits issue is evident to see.

I agree. Greedy landlords need dealing with (rent caps please!), I don’t think we have anything like the start up to build social housing en masse unfortunately.

I don’t even think there’s an answer now. We’ve changed the goalposts so many many people can identify as disabled and claim accordingly. Because most of the applications are for non-pathological illnesses, which rely on self reporting and persistence for diagnosis rather than a conclusive test. With children like OP’s it will be very very evident to see and not in doubt. But if somebody says they’re very anxious and reliant on repetition (for example), how can that be conclusively disproved? I’m sure they’re not mentally well people but there’s a big scale and only those at the severe end should be exempt from work. It’s easy to think your feelings ‘must be worse than everyone else’s’ because they’re yours.

Equally I see a LOT of messages on Facebook which are, frankly, suspect. ‘Can I claim carer’s for my mum while my partner claims it for me?’, that kind of thing. Come on - we need to stop giving clearly ludicrous claims the benefit of the doubt.

Ultimately they will stop benefits in all but the most severe cases, and to be honest people have been warning about it for so long (and being shouted at) it’s hard to feel that’s not just an obvious conclusion to all this.

Too scared. Once you’ve opened Pandora’s box, it’s very hard to close it again. We’ve reclassified (some) human behaviour as a disability and they cannot row back on that now.

@Blueybanditbingochilli why would it be definitely absurd for two people to claim carer element in UC for each other?

Sometimes there are things a person cannot do for themselves but they can help the other person with different things they cannot do. Not uncommon in couples.

Jack Sprat could eat not his wife could eat no lean. And so, between the two of them they licked the platter clean sort of thing.

But isn’t that just the sort of thing husbands and wives do for each other anyway?

Not for the 35hours a week you need for Carers!!

Because if you’re capable of being a carer you’re capable of doing a job. So should be doing that rather than claiming benefits for yourself. I don’t believe for a second these claims are what they make themselves out to be.

Yes. Saying you’re saving the state money by helping your own family is wildly individualistic. And a luxury belief.

DC on DLA may not go on to have LCW/LCWRA when they become adults. Many on PIP don’t. Not all DC on DLA will be eligible for PIP either.

People can have the carer element on UC and work.

It Is not a luxury belief. It is a fact recognised by charities such as Carers UK, Carers Trust, Employers for Carers and based on research such as that from the University of Leeds. Even the newspapers recognised it earlier this year.

It’s not a fact, it’s subjective. They’re charities solely for the purpose of promoting whatever is best for disabled people, they don’t have budgetary constraints to consider

It is a fact supported by research from universities.

Exactly, charities would say that wouldn’t they?

As you clearly haven't been through the process, you'd know it doesn't work that way

You can't just self report and get benefits. Even when I had evidence from my medically trained consultant who has access to my test results, I was told he was lying. But she still had to ask what one of my diagnoses were. He had no reason to lie and my test results do back up what he said in his letter to my GP

And what's the point of reassessing people like me? My brain isn't going to rewire itself and the part that isn't developed the way it should be isn't going to suddenly develop properly. They could save money by leaving people like me alone.