Just a reminder of a long standing benefits injustice that most non carers aren't aware of - and are usually surprised to hear about. The exclusion of elderly carers from carers allowance.
If you're a carer for someone with a disability, it is strongly recommended that you do not get old yourself. A vast number of carers are in fact themselves elderly - it's really common. And carers are entitled to carers allowance (little though it is). Well not quite true. If you start to get a state pension, you will normally have your carers allowance stopped. (It's a bit more complex administratively than this - surprise, surprise - but that's the normal outcome.)
Caring doesn't stop or get any easier when people become pensioners, but the small payment for doing all the hours god sends and being on call for the rest stops - and so does any recognition of the value of all this effort incidentally.
If you're a carer, you probably know all about this. Most non carers are surprised. The government (all parties guilty here) are happy to stay quiet about it because there would probably be uproar if the voting public realized, and it keeps the governments spending bill down a little bit.
This is wrong. It's also heartless, discriminatory and profoundly unappreciative of the work carers do. Next time you hear a politician praise the invaluable work of a heroic carer, remind him/her/it that he/she/it has no right to speak about this until this injustice is rectified.
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ReplyDeleteYou make some very good points and I understand where you are coming from. The trouble is, to find the money to pay Carers Allowance to people already receiving State Retirement Pension the government would almost certainly take it away from, or greatly reduce its value to working-age carers. In other words, you would have older carers receiving SRP and CA and working-age carers getting (next-to) nothing. A number of older carers I have spoken to have been surprised to learn that working-age carers don't qualify for free prescriptions or discounted travel on the basis of receiving CA (they''d need to qualify via another benefit).
ReplyDeleteWhere this would leave working-age, full-time carers is anybody's guess - presumably they would be expected to work substantial hours in a paid job AND be a 24/7 carer? Taking in laundry or working at multiple envelope-stuffing jobs at home while they carry out their 24/7 caring duties?
In response to deeannjay:
ReplyDeleteIn the real world some folk indeed work substantial hours and are a 24/7 carers, it a case of needs must - or lose everything you have ever worked for, your home.
And if your work substantial hours you are means tested out of receiving CA.
To me, you response does not make sense, is illogical - why should it be one or the other as you age. The governments pot is as full or empty as we allow, carers have value whatever their age.
Anna :o]
Totally agree that all carers should be valued whatever their age.
DeleteSorry, I don't understand your comment about "working 24 hours and are a 24/7 carer". You can't do both, Being a full-time carer means exactly that - you take on caring responsibilities full-time to the exclusion of all other activities and cannot possibly take on paid work. Hence dependence on Carers Allowance. That was my experience when I looked after my elderly father full time for 18 months in 2007-08 and I believe I was very much living in the real world. People who are doing a paid job AND caring for a loved one are not full-time carers, they are part-time carers, even if they qualify for CA by doing 35 hours caring a week. And I would hasten to add that they are still performing a very valuable and often thankless service. There's no rights or wrongs here.
Totally agree that all carers should be valued whatever their age.
DeleteSorry, I don't understand your comment about "working 24 hours and are a 24/7 carer". You can't do both, Being a full-time carer means exactly that - you take on caring responsibilities full-time to the exclusion of all other activities and cannot possibly take on paid work. Hence dependence on Carers Allowance. That was my experience when I looked after my elderly father full time for 18 months in 2007-08 and I believe I was very much living in the real world. People who are doing a paid job AND caring for a loved one are not full-time carers, they are part-time carers, even if they qualify for CA by doing 35 hours caring a week. And I would hasten to add that they are still performing a very valuable and often thankless service. There's no rights or wrongs here.