So what is a carer? Easy question isn't it? Well not really.
Why ask the question? Well if you go to most carer forums, even the national charity ones you will see that almost every one of those who post on them say that Carers Allowance is too low. I don't think many people would disagree with that, but here's the thing, is there really over 6 million carers in the UK? National charities seem to include people who just support older people in that 6 million but they would not be eligible for Carers Allowance so should they be classed as “a carer”?
I've always said that carers need to have an actual 'definition' of what a carer is, for example: Carer Worker, Foster Carer, Care Support Worker, the list goes on, hell there’s even an Animal Foster Carer (link http://www.woodgreen.org.uk/how_to_help/animal_foster_carer) . The statistics pushed out by Carers UK (link http://www.carersuk.org/) are absurd! 45% of people have given up work to care for someone? Absolute nonsense.
To be eligible for Carers Allowance you need to fulfil a set of rules, the government states-
Carer’s Allowance is £61.35 a week to help you look after someone with substantial caring needs.
You don’t have to be related to, or live with, the person you care for.
You must be 16 or over and spend at least 35 hours a week caring for them.
The person you care for must already get one of these benefits:
Personal Independence Payment (PIP) daily living component
Disability Living Allowance (DLA) - the middle or highest care rate
Attendance Allowance
Constant Attendance Allowance at or above the normal maximum rate with an Industrial Injuries Disablement Benefit, or basic (full day) rate with a War Disablement Pension
Armed Forces Independence Payment (AFIP)
Going by that there are about 1.5 million people getting or should be getting Carers Allowance so where does the “6 million carers” come from? I’ve been shouted down about this before but the thing is you cannot get justice for carers if their numbers are falsely inflated, the opposite will apply. Including people who do the odd bit of shopping for a pensioner or does their garden once in a while as being carers is insulting to actual carers anyway but this is what’s happening and it’s stupid, damn stupid.
This is where the idea of an actual definition for those people who get or should get Carers Allowance comes into play. It’s simplistic but it seems you need to start somewhere. Petitions and mass email campaigns to MP’s have done nothing to raise Carers Allowance no one can say it has. So go back to the drawing board, start with those carers that can be defined by the Carers Allowance they receive or should receive (there are people that should be eligible for Carers Allowance but the overlapping benefit rule hits them like people who draw the state pension or they are children who are carrying out a caring role for example).
Okay this is rehashing an idea from when I ran UK Carers (link http://www.ukcarers.net) but it is still valid, and to this day I still cannot work out why national carer charities want to falsely inflate the number of carers.
Stop mixing carers in with every other group or organisation that is connected to “carers”, define us - pay us, simples.
And while we are stop excluding carers. The list of groups that needed reminding that carers actually exist is pretty astounding, the WOW petition group, Labours Disability Poverty Taskforce, the Spartacus group to name just a few. Oh, even the People’s Parliament (link http://thepeoplesparliament.me.uk/) doesn’t seem to have a single mention of carers. Are all carers feeble-minded simpering old biddies? No we are not! I’ve seen groups saying that there should be unity between online disabled groups and still fail to grasp the fact we carers exist.
Being the realist I am though I know that there never will be unity. I know that there are those online like myself that people hate, personally I don’t give two hoots (*though I toned that down) Anyone that is different to the norm, has ideas that others don’t like such as refusing to accept anything that carer charities pump out tend to be taken as weirdos to be avoided. That’s fine, I have no problem with that, safe to say though that in the many years campaigning for carers the one issue that comes up time and time again is the fact that Carers Allowance is too low. So perhaps we ‘weirdos’ aren’t the problem after? I‘ve even been called a “dangerous man“ for challenging one national carer charity to work ‘for’ carers rather than to decide what is ‘best’ for carers.
Define us - pay us, it isn’t rocket science, it’s not that hard to do at all. Carers need to get out of the mind-set that they are a shadow of the disabled person they care for. They aren’t shadows they are an important part of the lives of our carees. But the thing is getting carers to realise they are important because they damn well are.
