We are extremely anxious of the knock on effect this would have to family carers in receipt of Carers Allowance for those affected. This double whammy would have grave consequences on the income of many families, that are already suffering with disproportionate cuts to benefits and social care.
On Thursday 9 June, MPs will take part in a debate in the House of Commons Chamber on carers. This debate was recommended by the Backbench Business Committee following a representation from Mims Davies MP.
This debate will be opened by Mims Davies, Conservative MP for Eastleigh
Transcripts of proceedings in the Commons Chamber are available three hours after they happen in Today’s Commons Debates.
From Monday 6 June members of the public can inform the Backbench Business debate by joining the conversation on the Carers Week Facebook page at www.facebook.com/carersweek.
The Backbench Business Committee meets weekly on Tuesdays to consider requests for debates from any backbench Members of Parliament on any subject.
The Committee then has to decide how to allocate the limited Parliamentary time it has at its disposal. The Committee’s meetings are always conducted in public and can be watched on Parliament TV.
copied from Parliament site
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Twitter users – #WelfareDebate15
Tuesday May 5th Daily Politics debate
BBC2 2pm
BBC Parliament 9.00pm
BBC News 9.30pm
Presenters Andrew Neil and Alison Holt
Participants –
Iain Duncan Smith Conservative
Rachel Reeves Labour
Steve Webb LibDems
Suzanne Evans UKIP
Jonathan Bartley Green Party
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Non-attendance (see below) recently by the purveyors of welfare reform suggests that they deem themselves to be unaccountable for their actions.
Will Mr Smith attend this debate or will the quiet man become the invisible man AGAIN
Iain Duncan Smith fails to show up for General Election hustings in his own constituency
Britain asks: where is David Cameron?
Wirral West MP Esther McVey pulls out of live radio interview in Liverpool city centre
‘Ashamed’ Tories quit Newsnight welfare debate at the last moment
Many disabled people and carers will be watching this show. They have borne the brunt of these cuts and are living in dread of the prospect of the further £12billion cuts to welfare promised by the Conservatives.
With many thanks to those that added their name in support of this letter to the Guardian.
If you wish to add your support please add your name in the comments section
What does Carers Allowance mean to you ? again leave a comment.
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Family carers are among the most responsible members of society. CarerWatch, along with others, believes suggestions made in recent leaked documents of moving carers to universal credit would result in an unfair system that gives no recognition whatsoever of the contribution carers make to society.
CarerWatch believes that governments should accept their responsibility to carers. Carers deserve a livable income, a separate benefit which recognises that they are not unemployed or “passive” recipients of benefit but are making an important contribution to society.
Those in receipt of carer’s allowance cannot be classed as being inactive. Carers are unique within the benefit system in that they have to (more…)
copied over from Huff Post Politics
Sir Malcolm Rifkind MP suggests £60k, which goes up to £80k due to his chairmanship of parliamentary intelligence committee, justifies offering his services to a “Chinese company” for extra renumeriation. The sting has seen him suspended from The Conservative Party. I reflect that leaving my professional career to look after my disabled brother, saves the taxpayer the equivalent to paying his salary.
Dear Sir Malcolm Rifkind MP
I can sympathise you want a professional pay package to compensate you for the sacrifice you have made in public service. I can only apologise that sacrificing my own professional career to continue the care of my disabled brother, saving the tax payer £80,000 a year, was not enough to keep you in the manner you wish to be accustomed. (more…)
When undertaking a new task it is vital you read the manuals first. The more information you take on board at the beginning, can hopefully be of benefit to you as you go along.
Caring can be like that. For many people they can become carers in the blink of an eye, for others it is a slow progress of offering assistance, that in time takes over your life and becomes a full time job. We always think it happens to someone else so no, or very little, preparation is taken.
Yet the impact of being an unpaid carer can be felt on every aspect of your life. From finances, employment, social time, education, family life etc.
With the current welfare reforms, cuts to social care – there has never been a greater need than now for carers to be informed of their rights, to be signposted to support.
Check with your local council if your town has a local support group, or input your area here
There are national organisations online that have free phone numbers if needing advice, online forums where you can meet other carers.
If you have any questions/ need more information please email admin@carerwatch.com or leave a comment below
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According to Mr Clegg, some carers experience ‘an unbearable burden’. As such, under the LibDem election promise, they will receive a ‘reward’ paid annually to allow them to have a break. This ‘reward’? £125 a year paid to those who receive carers allowance only. He suggests that ‘ Some carers might use the money to hire a care assistant to help them out for a week’
Mr Clegg, have you ever tried to employ a care assistant for £125 a week?
Mr Clegg, have you ever tried working 24/7 and only having one week a year off? (Many carers get no breaks at all)
Mr Clegg, are you aware that many carers are not entitled to Carers Allowance
Carers do not want you to ‘show our thanks and ease the pressure the nation’s carers face’ by giving some of us a paltry £125 a year.
Carers Allowance is paid at a rate below that of all other income replacement benefits. Consequently any annual uprating has a minimal impact and does not reflect the rise in the cost of living, reducing carers spending power year on year and increasing the income gap between carers and the rest of society.
Carers in receipt of other income replacement benefits are excluded from claiming Carers Allowance due to the overlapping benefit rule.
Carers who have previously been entitled to Carers Allowance find that this is removed on reaching retirement age causing distress and anger, this can be after decades of caring for a sick or disabled relative.
The current £102 earnings limit at which Carers Allowance is withdrawn is a disincentive for carers who could combine work and caring to contemplate work or, for those in part-time employment, to increase their hours.
The withdrawal of Carers Allowance when a carer embarks on an educational course at college or university that entails more than 21 hours study per week acts as a barrier to carers wishing to engage in education and training in order to update their skills with a view to entering or re-entering the workplace. Many financially-assisted educational courses do not have Carers Allowance on their list of qualifying benefits for reduced fees, making engaging in education unaffordable.
Correction added, thanks to Charles47 ( The blog has a mistake: the 21 hour rule is notional. If the course is for (example) 10 hours only, but the college or university calls it a full time course – you lose your Carers Allowance. So for many carers, there’s no incentive to train.)
For many carers, caring is a full-time occupation. In order to qualify for Carers Allowance, either paid or underlying, a carer must spend a minimum of 35 hours caring per week, many carers care for substantially more than the minimum 35 hours. Although not perceived as such, caring is a full-time job and can involve meeting physical needs, psychological needs and social needs, supervision, prompting, dealing with health and care services, managing finances, medication, cleaning, shopping, virtually every aspect of daily living.
Carers have no regular hours of work, have no entitlement to breaks, days off, holidays or sick leave, they are not covered by health and safety legislation and frequently suffer injury as a consequence of caring. For the majority of full-time carers employment is not an option, for those they care for, being left with strangers is not an option.
The real term reductions in Treasury funding for local authorities has resulted in tightening eligibility criteria, the closure of day centres and increased care costs, reducing the number of people able to access or afford social care. Family carers are increasingly providing the care that would have been previously been provided by the State.
All governments, past and present, have demonstrably failed to meet the financial needs of carers who do not have the option of taking up employment.
CarerWatch members believe that family carers are not an optional extra to be added on as an after thought. ALL political parties need to amend their attitude towards family carers and make some speed in deciding how to adequately fund family carers.
.Please feel free to leave comments below
A disabled grandmother and her granddaughter who provides full time care for her have this week issued judicial review proceedings in the High Court against the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, Iain Duncan Smith, challenging the inclusion of Carer’s Allowance in the ‘benefit cap.’ The benefit cap policy has been in force across the country since September 2013.
The government has already conceded that the cap had unintended consequences for victims of domestic violence living in women’s refuges, and after the families case was heard in the Court of Appeal, Ian Duncan Smith with no fanfare amended the regulations to remove women’s refuges from the cap.
The proceedings issued this week highlight another consequence of the cap, which may surprise those who consider that the cap achieves fairness. Included in the group of families who are capped are those who receive Carer’s Allowance. To qualify for Carer’s Allowance the benefit claimant has to be providing upwards of 35 hours a week care to a severely disabled person. This means that anyone receiving Carer’s Allowance is by definition not available to work, because they must be providing care.
3. The judicial review challenges Part 8A of the Housing Benefit Regulations 2006, which was inserted by the Benefit Cap (Housing Benefit) Regulations 2012, SI 2012/2994, pursuant to section 96 of the Welfare Reform Act 2012. The claimants argue that the Regulations are discriminatory and unreasonable. They also argue that the Secretary of State did not take proper account of the impact of the policy on carers and those they care for, and is irrational.
Head of Advice and Information Carers UK, Jean French, will be answering your questions on applying for welfare benefits as part of BBC Radio 4’s Money Box Live.
If you would like to ask a question call 03700 100 444 from 1pm to 3.30pm
on Wednesday October 2nd 2013
or e-mail moneybox@bbc.co.uk
You can listen to the programme live tomorrow at 1pm at this link: www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b03brqlc
This week sees the Tory conference held in Manchester. Various ministers have already spoken but today we will hear from a man, Iain Duncan Smith, who for many carers is the biggest failure to date.
Past, and present governments, have continuously ignored the plight of carers, a group of people that give so much. Their Love, and the care they provide, taken for granted by those in power.
We are in the middle of the biggest shake up to the welfare system for over 60 years, changes that see many benefits changed/cut, support withdrawn, and yet the issues surrounding the LOWEST benefit of all were not addressed. Carers Allowance is just £59.75 and care must be provided to a minimum of 35 hours .
In the report Breakthrough Britain, by the Centre for Social Justice, a think tank of which Mr Smith is Chairman, they reported that…
Family carers are undervalued in our society and receive a disproportionately low level of financial support given the many hours of work that they do.
Carers of elderly and disabled people are not adequately resourced or recognize for the work they do
CarerWatch Blog 