Will full time carers be forced into looking for work?

Affy

Hi all,

I'm trying to understand how all the new DWP changes will affect me as a full time carer on IS and CA. Will my caring be recognised as work, or will I be assessed to see if I can work etc.? Thanks in advance for your replies.

Affy:)

TOBRUK

Nobody knows yet how any of the changes to benefits will affect people. The government haven't given any details of how the universal credit will work (they even don't know how they are going to work it yet) - as IS, IB/ESA, JSA, housing etc will come under one benefit.

They will not be able to make changes for a while yet, and they will slowly give information as they work it out!

They will not be able to deliver final changes for a few years (some politicians have stated that all the chages could take 10 years) and we will have to wait.

I am wondering and anxious to know like you and many others on different benefits how it will affect us, but nobody can give any answers yet. If you are not working at present and are receiving benefit based on the fact that you are unable to work, you will be assessed at some point. I am presently on IB and eventually I shall have an assessment (as everyone on IB) to be moved to ESA. However, I don't know what the outcome will be as eventually all benefits will become one!

I have seen some posts on this forum asking if they don't get esa will they be put on JSA and similar - the answer to that is that there will be no JSA, ESA etc because there will be only ONE BENEFIT.

I am on DLA and I will not be surprised if they make drastic changes with this benefit - changing rates, eligibility etc I'm sure CA will also change.

Please try not to worry too much yet because these are all proposals and have not been debated in parliament yet and I don't think that all the changes they propose will be passed.

kingfisherblue

I am a carer, but as we save this country £87billion a year (I think the figure was from carers UK), I can't see us being forced to take a job in addition to our caring responsibilities. It is already acknowledged that the people we care for need substantial care, as we cannot be able to claim CA unless they receive middle or high rate DLA (not sure about caring for someone imn receipt of AA). If we don't continue to care for our family and friends, somebody else would have to do it, and they would cost significantly more than £53.90 a week!

eve13_2

Personally I think the only way Carers can be protected is if they are assessed rather than the people they care for. In America its called disabled by association. We care for at least 35 hours therefore it shouldn't matter whether the people we care for gets middle or high DLA. If medicals for DLA are run on same line as IB you can bet ATOS (or whoever else will be running it) will be failing the set amount government orders them to fail. This will effectively mean that carers will then have to care without even the pittance we recieve now. No, I'm certainly not an expert just someone thats cared for 2 1/2 decades and seen thet things never get better. Just the opposite.