Here's one for you all. I have a disabled son and receive a carers allowance for him. He attends a special needs school and my other child is in secondary school. Do you feel it is right for us as carers to be penalised in the workplace. I will explain more. With the carers allowance, you are legally allowed to earn something like £84 per week before all your carers allowance is stopped. A penny over and you lose the £48.65 allowance. Now, how many employers out there will employ someone for a couple of days between the hours of 9 and 2:30 and will pay less than £84 per week? Not many! So, basically, if I were to go out to work (which I would love to do), I would have to find a job that is between 9 and 2:30 5 days a week and pays enough money for it to be worth getting out of bed for becuause I would have to basically earn £48.65 before I actually gained any benefit from my job! This kind of job is very hard to find. Do you think this if fair? There are millions of carers in this country and many must be in the same predicament as I am. I feel I am wasted yet in a corner until my son is able to care for himself. When this will be - who knows. So I am faced with the fact that once he leaves school in 2 years time, I am still going to have to care for him if he doesn't go onto college and basically be paid £48.65 per week for doing so. I find this SO frustrating and unfair. If it were similar to income support that is worked, or used to be worked on a sliding scale, i.e. the more you earn, the less benefit you get then it may not be so bad but no, 1p over and that's it, you get nothing.
No the carer's allowance is laughable and why would this money grabbing government change the amount when they can give all the money to immigrants and terrorists instead. Its voting gathering and easy to put a cross in the right box once they have schmoozed their immigrants with promises of more benefits. Am I angry and cynical about this? yes! because Im a carer and get stonewalled by the council when I ask for anything but then Im not a poor persecuted illegal, am I?
