Carers allowance & job seekers allowance mentioned in manifesto....

GlasweJen

Unfortunately the food I eat would probably make my other half very ill very quickly - I eat a very high salt diet as I don't absorb it properly and without it I wouldn't have blood pressure. My OH can't eat like this and it's more complicated than making the same dinner and sticking more salt on mine (though some things can be adjusted easier than others).

Also my OH works in a very high stress position, he needs his sleep. I sleep attached to a bi-pap machine, an ECG like the one they use for "monitoring" in hospital complete with blood pressure cuff that inflates (noisily) every 30 mins. My mum stays in our spare room Monday to Friday to help when the machines inevitably go bananas when my breathing stops or my heart stops. He handles it on weekends.

I'm currently only working half days because I'm not handling full days and I can't get through an eye test so I'm doing paperwork and "soft" things like low vision assessments. So mums on call when I'm at work and then essentially babysitting me when I'm waiting for OH to come in. Even something like eating my dinner a mission as I have weakness in my face so I can't always chew properly so I choke. Sometimes when I swallow something it comes back through my nose. I also have a bad gastric reflux so some nights I wake up vomiting in the night and it's just stomach acid.

In the evenings I can't lift my arms or reach to get the remote control. The treatment that works for this condition (MuSK+ myasthenia gravis) is an infusion of other people's antibodies called intravenous immunoglobins (IVIG) but I can't have this as much as they'd like me to as my immune system can't be boosted because of my transplant and graft-host disease which is kept in control by essentially dampening my immune system to as little as I can manage to get through a day.

I had IVIG once when my muscles got so weak that the muscles in my chest gave up and collapsed against my lungs meaning that I couldnt breathe. I was in a high dependency unit suffering from a myasthenic crisis. My specialists told me at the time that if I was a pet they would have let me die already.

Just now I'm sitting with an infection surrounding one of my pacemaker leads so I can't move my left arm as the cyst is so big under my arm that it hurts. These infections are quite common because my immune system is pretty much dead. My mum spends more time at the chemist waiting on my drugs than I do at work some weeks.

FBaby

Well that post above certainly describes a totally different situation than your first post did when you cited the main reason for her claiming CA was that she needed to be on call when you were at work. I would have thought that the fact she stays overnight to help you in the night to be much more pertinent to her being a carer to you (I won't comment on my views about your partner needing his sleep).

nannytone_2

[QUOTE=FBaby;67353750]But wouldn't that also justify the opposite, that together, you are managing to support each other, and therefore do not need additional money to do so?[/QUOTE]
not at all.
i was able to give him the support he needed to remain independent because i was under no pressure to work!
if i had needed to work to support myself, i wouldn't have had the time to give to him.
that is why carers allowance is so important.
it eases the pressure to allow someone to commit to caring for another person for as much time as is necessary

FBaby

i was able to give him the support he needed to remain independent because i was under no pressure to work!
if i had needed to work to support myself, i wouldn't have had the time to give to him.
that is why carers allowance is so important.

But you say yourself you couldn't work anyway so it's not a case of subsidising what you are losing out for not being able to work due to your caring role. One of my friend claims CA for her eldest child although she is at school full-time and with her father every Sunday, so she certainly isn't providing 35 hours extra care. She says to people that she is entitled to it because it prevents her from working (in case the school calls her, although this occurence seems to be very rare nowadays) however she also says that she is not in a position to work because she has three other children and the cost of childcare means that she wouldn't be better off if she did.

I don't think we can assume that all those claiming CA would be definitely working if it wasn't for their caring role.

racon

FBaby wrote: »

But you say yourself you couldn't work anyway so it's not a case of subsidising what you are losing out for not being able to work due to your caring role. One of my friend claims CA for her eldest child although she is at school full-time and with her father every Sunday, so she certainly isn't providing 35 hours extra care. She says to people that she is entitled to it because it prevents her from working (in case the school calls her, although this occurence seems to be very rare nowadays) however she also says that she is not in a position to work because she has three other children and the cost of childcare means that she wouldn't be better off if she did.

I don't think we can assume that all those claiming CA would be definitely working if it wasn't for their caring role.

Hey, I do have to accept that there must be many CA claimants that see it as another way of topping up the family income without having to do anything to get it. Let's be honest you don't have to provide any evidence of time spent caring. It is seen by many as an 'extra' when Mid/High care/PIP care is awarded to someone. That is all wrong, but those are the rules - it is a self certified benefit. I did hear of someone that actually claimed to care for someone that lived 100's of miles away. They argued that with the travelling time (8 hours each way) and a day spent there (24 hours) it added up to over 35 hours a week.

nannytone_2

[i acknowledged that there is abus of the system, and in my case it would have given me a financial gain of around £30 a week, but i personally didn't feel i needed the extra and so didn't claim it.
your friend may be one of those that are abusing the system, but before my daughter lost her younger boy, he certainly needed minimally, an extra 35 hours of care a week that the elder boy didn't.
he was time fed and needed meds throughout the night. he also couldn't be left alone AT ALL. so no having a shower, unless my son in law and daughter got up at a ridiculous hour so that one could be with my grandson while the other was with him ( my daughter was working full time)
when the boys condition stabilised, mt sone in law returned to work part time ( school hours) and they had to pay a ridiculous amount for a 1 to 1 career at nursery.

as for 2 disabled people claiming carers for each other .... then yes, i can see that they may need the financial assistance.
the benefits system is set up in such a way that a single disabled person receives arounnd the same amount as a couple with 1 disabled.
the single person will be entitled to premiums which a couple will not get in;less both are disabled.
this premium is around £35 a week, and though it doesn't seem that great to someone that can work and earn that amount in less than a day ...
for someone that is unable to work because they are needed to care...
that money can make all the difference in the world/B]

racon

nannytone wrote: »

[

as for 2 disabled people claiming carers for each other .... then yes, i can see that they may need the financial assistance.
the benefits system is set up in such a way that a single disabled person receives arounnd the same amount as a couple with 1 disabled.
the single person will be entitled to premiums which a couple will not get in;less both are disabled.
this premium is around £35 a week, and though it doesn't seem that great to someone that can work and earn that amount in less than a day ...
for someone that is unable to work because they are needed to care...
that money can make all the difference in the world/B]

Hey the premiums are a little bit higher than that.
Single [FONT=FS Me,FS Me][FONT=FS Me,FS Me]£61.10[/FONT][/FONT]


Couple, one qualifies [FONT=FS Me,FS Me][FONT=FS Me,FS Me]£61.10[/FONT][/FONT]
Couple, both qualify [FONT=FS Me,FS Me][FONT=FS Me,FS Me]£122.20[/FONT][/FONT]
In addition they would get the Carers Premium of £34.20 each

tea-bag

racon wrote: »

Hey the premiums are a little bit higher than that.
Single [FONT=FS Me,FS Me][FONT=FS Me,FS Me]£61.10[/FONT][/FONT]


Couple, one qualifies [FONT=FS Me,FS Me][FONT=FS Me,FS Me]£61.10[/FONT][/FONT]
Couple, both qualify [FONT=FS Me,FS Me][FONT=FS Me,FS Me]£122.20[/FONT][/FONT]
In addition they would get the Carers Premium of £34.20 each

Not a bad little top up on top of already generous disability benefits.

nannytone_2

tea-bag wrote: »

Not a bad little top up on top of already generous disability benefits.

the extra £35 is the carers premium which is added after carers allowance has been deducted from other benefits ... so they only benefit by £35 and not £61.

while you get envious of the 'over generous disability benefits' do you also envy the severe disabilities that people need to have to qualify for them?

devizes18193

nannytone wrote: »

the extra £35 is the carers premium which is added after carers allowance has been deducted from other benefits ... so they only benefit by £35 and not £61.

while you get envious of the 'over generous disability benefits' do you also envy the severe disabilities that people need to have to qualify for them?

Well said .