We received a petition asking:
“We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to stop carers and there families living in poverty.”
Details of Petition:
“Most people think disabled people and there families get a lot of benefits, the disabled people receive either DLA or AA but that is for them to try to live as normal a live as possible. Most disabled people need to be cared for by a member of there family. Who should be in receipt of carers allowance for which you must care for at least 35 hours a week but a carer does at least double that, so this means they can`t work so you should be able to get income support, if you do it is docked for the amount of carers allowance you get. We either need to be paid properly for the job we do or allow us to go to work and the government provides proffessionals for all disabled care needs, when a carer reaches pension age there carers allowance stops because in receipt of pension but they are still caree does not suddenly recover at pension age.”
· Read the petition
· Petitions homepage
Read the Government’s response
Thank you for your petition about Carer’s Allowance.
The Government recognises the great personal commitment of people who care for a severely disabled relative, friend or neighbour. Depending on their circumstances, carers may qualify for a range of social security benefits.
Carer’s Allowance was introduced principally to provide a measure of support for carers who do not qualify for other benefits. Carers with limited resources can receive more substantial help from benefits such as Pension Credit, Income Support, Housing Benefit and Council Tax Benefit. These can all be paid at higher rates for carers.
The 35 hour rule represents the minimum amount of care that a severely disabled person would be expected to need. Since the rate of Carer’s Allowance is not affected by the amount of care provided, it cannot be considered as a wage for caring. This would be at odds with the purpose of the benefit.
We have already introduced significant improvements in the benefits available to carers. The weekly earnings limit in Carer’s Allowance has increased from £50 in 1997 to £95 currently, providing additional help for carers who can undertake some employment in addition to their caring duties. April’s increase in the Allowance itself means that carers can receive over £7,500 a year in total from their Carer’s Allowance and earnings. Since April 2007, carers have had a right to ask their employer for flexible working arrangements and to have their request considered seriously.
Carer’s Allowance is now available to those aged 65 or over, and gives some 220,000 carers access to the additional amount for carers in Pension Credit. When Pension Credit was introduced, to provide more help for lower-income pensioners, the additional amount was set at the same rate as the carer premium in the income-related benefits, which the Government had recently increased by £10 a week over and above the normal increase in line with prices. Lower-income carers can now receive up to £27.75 a week extra from these benefits, compared with customers who do not have caring responsibilities.
In addition, many carers have been given the opportunity of building or continuing to build entitlement to the State Second Pension and, from 2010, carers can benefit from a new National Insurance carer’s credit, and reduction to thirty in the minimum number of years for which National Insurance contributions must be paid or credited in order to receive a full State Pension.
You have suggested that Carer’s Allowance is reduced if someone receives Income Support. This is incorrect. Income Support is disregarded within Carer’s Allowance.
However, since the introduction of Invalid Care Allowance in 1976, now known as Carer’s Allowance, it has been payable to people of working age who cannot support themselves by working because they care for a disabled person. It is an income-maintenance benefit rather than a payment for services provided by the carer. Income Support is also a benefit which is intended to provide for a person’s day-to-day living expenses and where the income a person already has is insufficient to meet his or her needs. For this reason, Carer’s Allowance has always been taken fully into account in Income Support. To do otherwise would mean that provision would be made twice over from public funds for the same needs. However, receipt of Carer’s Allowance enables a carer to receive the carer premium, currently £27.75 a week, as part of their Income Support.
A basic principle of the social security system is that only one benefit at a time can be paid for the same purpose and this is known as the overlapping benefit rule. Whilst the circumstances that give rise to entitlement to Carer’s Allowance and State Pension are different, both benefits are designed to provide a degree of replacement for lost or forgone income. Carer’s Allowance replaces income where the carer has given up the chance of working full-time in order to look after a severely disabled person, while State Pension replaces income in retirement.
However, where State Pension is in payment, Carer’s Allowance will not usually be payable. Where someone would receive less from State Pension than from Carer’s Allowance, an amount of Carer’s Allowance can be paid to make up the difference. In addition, where Carer’s Allowance cannot be paid, the person will keep underlying entitlement to the benefit.
As part of our National Carers Strategy, we outlined our vision for the future of support for carers in ‘Carers at the heart of 21st-century families and communities’, published on 10 June. This recognises that continuing work on long-term benefit reform must take account of the particular needs of carers.
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