Becoming a Carer

laura1812

I am looking into becoming a carer for an elderly relative who is no longer able to look after themselves. However I am confused! Am I only entitled to £65 a week in Carers allowance. I currently earn £17000 and in order to be able to become a Carer I would need to earn a similar amount. Is this a possibility or is £65 a week all that I would be entitled to? Any help would be appreciated.

Indie_Kid

Do you have a working partner / savings over £16k?

pmlindyloo

Are you eligible for Carer's Allowance? The person you care for must be on a qualifying benefit.

You can earn up to £100 a week after certain deductions.

You may qualify for HB or CT support but these are means tested so will depend on your personal circumstances (partner/savings)

Have a read of this:

https://www.gov.uk/carers-allowance/eligibility

Is the relative living alone and claiming benefits? Your claiming CA for them may affect any premiums that they are receiving.

sueturnersmith

£65 is all you get. My husband gets that for caring full time for me. Don't spend it all at once ;-)

laura1812

I do have a working partner but no savings over 16 k.

marliepanda

You may get some additional benefits if his income is low, but carers allowance is more compensation for not being able to work, rather than a replacement for the income. (Considering you have to care for I think 30something hours, and obviously even a min wage job would pay more than £65 for that many hours.)

ArtoDeeto

laura1812 wrote: »

I am looking into becoming a carer for an elderly relative who is no longer able to look after themselves. However I am confused! I currently earn £17000 and I would need to earn a similar amount.

Sounds like you are looking on this as a business venture.
I hear most carers do it for love...

bll78

ArtoDeeto wrote: »

Sounds like you are looking on this as a business venture.
I hear most carers do it for love...

If she was doing it as a business venture surely she'd be after more than she earns now, your acting as though she's being unreasonable trying to understand how she'll stand financially.
If the OP had come on here in a few months and said she was about to lose her house or be declared bankrupt after leaving her job to become a carer she'd be shot down in flames for giving up a decent job without calculating the impact.
The simple fact is for anyone that has worked and hasn't been on benefits all their life becoming an unpaid carer (i.e on carers allowance not an employee) has a massive impact on your family and mortgages and debts you could easily pay when you worked become impossible to meet, and when all said and done you can't live off love.
As another point from the help you've already had from other posters, if your relative is on income based benefits, you getting carers allowance will reduce her allowances. I don't know the ins and outs but I'm sure another poster will.

Cyclamen

It is a pittance... something around £2 an hour..

I think you can in some circumstances get income support but if your partner is working i think you'd most likely be inelligible.. i have a friend whose partner gets carers and IS for looking after her as he doesnot work.

I would imagine its not going to be easy to work full time, run your home and care for someone unless they live with you. But can you work part time or from home (the person you will be caring for).

Depending on the persons situations they may lose benefit supplements if you claim carers allowance so may be worse off financially. Do you want to do this for them? OK blunt question but caring for someone can be hard, especially if you go from loving grandkid who brings normaility and happy stories in for a chat and end up emptying commodes and helping with bathing.. for some people its the perfect situation for others it is not as good. I missed the normality of family relationships when they were all sharing care for me.. my husband still does huge amounts but showering and personal care i have a non family member for.

Have you thought about getting a care needs assesment? would social services help? you could still do some care stuff as they never provide all that is needed but if someone else helped with for example getting up and dressed and breakfast each morning you may be able to still work part time or flexi hours so you can take the person out, do a bit of housework and most importantly sit with them and natter/play cards what ever is there thing.

I hope you find a solution, our care system is propped up by family stepping in and they do an amazing job.

Bantex_2

Much would depend on the level of funding awarded to the client.