Caring and Money

Replies

By Sparhawk73

Re: Caring and Money
Thu 31 Jan 2008 15:20

Hi there I understand what you mean . I think it is stupid that the income suppoet i get has a deduction for me getting carers allowance then because my wife gets High rate DLA then i get money added on to it again it is silly.

Jason (sparhawk73)

By kerry

Re: Caring and Money
Thu 31 Jan 2008 18:04

Ho amanda,
I dont live near surrey (sorry) but thought i'd say hi anyway. Used to live 'darn sarf' tho!
Yes I agree its crazy that for such a pitiful allowance we are taxed but this is to fund our pensions!
(and of course once we get them we wont get carers allw!!!)And when we were on Income spt, I couldnt believe we got less as we received carers. But we did have a fair whack of our mortgage paid and also were exempt from Council tax.

Now I am a full time uni student and a FT carer, my husband is a FT carer...
Because i now receive a loan and grant I have to pay full mortgage and council tax (with just 25% off for being a student)
they take into account the loan even tho this has to be paid back once im working!
Now what i dont get is that if i was on my own with the kids i wouldnt pay CT and if I left and he was on his own wih the kids he wouldnt pay it either but as we live together we must pay!!!!!
its like were being penalised for living together and staying married (despite the temptation to go at times lol)

i going to uni so we can get out of the 'poverty trap' (I hope anyway), it would be so much easier to say sod it we ar ebetter off on benefits, but im not like that.
The same as the majority of carers, inc my husband, i want to work and the govt are in the process of encouraging all us lazy buggers to go back to work, but they are not offering any incentive or help along the way.

Once i qulify and hopefully get a job, my husband also want to get another job, the only way we can do this is if i work day, he works nights.

well i suppose at least it wont affect our intimate life as that went out the window when we had the boys 11 yrs ago lol.

always look on the bright side eh!!!!

By amandah

Re: Caring and Money
Thu 31 Jan 2008 20:04

Hi Thanks for your replys. I just wish that we could all get together and really go knocking on the door of number 10!! Its very unfair that our allowances get taxed. We are all doing such a wonderful caring job. Do they think our lives are easy? No way it 24/7 But I suppose we just get used to it Regards Amandah

By loopy

Re: Caring and Money
Fri 1 Feb 2008 17:02

They only give us a pittance because they know that most of us would not put our loved ones into a home. This government is not stupid. It knows that it would have to pay for alot more if our loved ones were in homes. It should be the other way round! they should pay us more that the paltry amount that they do now. Instead of raising the earnings limit to £95 (most of us cant go out to work because we cant get someone to look after our loved ones or we are so run down and tired ourselves and feeling ill with stress) they should raise the carers allowance to £95.
ho hum, such is life
Lisa

By loopy

Re: Caring and Money
Fri 1 Feb 2008 17:09

kerry, laughed out loud at your last bit of message!! I thought i was the only one who's intimate life had gone pear shaped!! I am far too tired for that!!

By amandah

Re: Caring and Money
Fri 1 Feb 2008 20:06

Hi Loopy, Thanks for your reply. I totally agree with you. They really ought to raise the allowance to £95. Many people as you rightly say cant go out to work as they have a difficult task of finding the right carer. But it annoys me that it is TAXED !!! Regards Amandah

By debzsanderson

Re: Caring and Money
Sat 2 Feb 2008 18:52

I have been made to feel really as if my position as a carer is not doing enough as far as the benefits people are concerned!! Let me explain...................
I recently received a letter from the income support people (I get about £25 a week off them!!) the letter told me that I had to go for a "return to work" interview. I phoned them up and explained the nature of my carers position mean that I was virtually housebound myself as a 24/7 carer for my fiance. They still tried to insist I had to travel the 10 miles (I have no transport either!!) for them to find me work -I am angry as I must save the government a fortune as most of us do. For me to go to work would mean finding a carer for Mark and I would lose my housing benefit and other medical help that goes with Income support!! I am very down at the moment as Marks MS has got a lot worse (we had to have paramedics out last night as he fell on the floor and I couldnt get him up). I am often up during the night to help
Mark to the bathroom or help him turn over in bed I then get up and do all the "normal" household tasks all day.

Has anyone else received a letter from the benfits poeple trying to get them back to work?? I wish they could spend a day (and night!!) doing what we all do and then tell us we aren't "working"

Debz xx

By marie66

Re: Caring and Money
Sat 2 Feb 2008 19:23

Hi Debs, this came up on another forum and the Carer took her autistic son with her to DWP as she had nobody to watch him!
Anyways there was bedlum in the DWP office as he kicked off on one...they have never asked her to come in again!

Another Carer told them, as a Carer theycould not leave home to come for an appointment to assess for work and was told as a Carer on Carers Allowance it was not compulsory only an offer of help to employment.

Maybe it depends on the office concerned.

marie x

By debzsanderson

Re: Caring and Money
Sat 2 Feb 2008 19:58

thankyou very much Marie!!

I wish the benefits people had told me that instead of making me feel in danger of losing my income support if I didn't comply with them!!

These people should think carefully about the way they word these letters and consider the reasons why we are unable to work - the stress was totally not need right now!!

Debz cc

By loopy

Re: Caring and Money
Sun 3 Feb 2008 09:44

i really dont think these pen pushers have a clue as to the job (cos it is a job) that we do. I had some trouble with the DLA people when my daughter turned 16. Unbeknown to me (cos i never recieved a letter) i had to become my duaghters appointee. Now that is all good and well, but i didnt have a letter so consequently her money was stopped. I questioned why and was told that i had to become her appointee and that my daughter would need an interview to see if she was capable of work. When i explained that she is totally dependant on me, has the mind of a young child and still liked to watch noddy videos, i was told that that would cut no ice with them. So instead of me taking her over to them, they arranged for a man to come and 'interview' her at home. I was praying that she would be on 'top form' eg, flapping her hands, screaming, biting herself etc etc when he came. She was!! he took one look at her and apologised to me for the totally incompetant idiots who insisted that she had this interview for work. I answered all her questions for her as she just looked blankly at him and repeated back what he said!! And she was watching noddy at the time.lol. Then after several phone calls and "we are dealing with her case" her money was re-instated. what a load of wasted time and stress that was!