Carers are caught in a pensions Catch-22
I AM 67 and have been a carer for my daughter for 20 years.
She was diagnosed with MS at the age of 22. At the time I was working as a PA at an aerial company.
My daughter came back home to live with us, but eventually had to give up her work in a hospital. Shortly afterwards, I was made redundant at the age of 52. I decided to look after my daughter full- time and so claimed Carer’s Allowance; my husband was still working.
At the age of 55 I received my private pension, which had been cut in half (as was my husband’s) because of Government rule changes.
I thought that at the age of 60 I would be getting my state pension, which would have been a great help. But I only found out when I applied for it that this wouldn’t happen for another five years. I, like many other WASPIs (Women Against State Pension Inequality), had not previously received any letter telling me the pension age was changing. But when I finally did get my state pension, the Carer’s Allowance was stopped because it was deemed that I had gone over the threshold allowed because of my pension. So straight away I was short of just over £60 a week.
I still look after my daughter and gladly do so. But it is a 24-hour job, as she cannot do anything for herself and has been bed-bound for the past 15 years. She does have carers in once a day, who give her a bath, and district nurses have been helping out, too, lately, for which I am extremely grateful. But they don’t come at weekends, and I and my husband do absolutely everything else.
In a nutshell, both our private pensions were halved. I lost five years of my state pension and, because I became a pensioner, I also lost the Carer’s Allowance I had been receiving. We now struggle on as best we can. But how can all this be fair? isaBella DUtton,
Coventry, W. Mids. CArerS save the country an enormous amount of money, but are treated appallingly, and I so agree with Joanne Cole and Mrs Perkins (Letters) about their plight.
I would like to see an MP trying to survive on a paltry Carer’s Allowance of £278.80 a month, while being shut out of other benefits. Many carers are unable to supplement this income due to the needs of the cared-for.
I have been a paid carer in the past and also worked as an independent living co-ordinator for Age UK, so I saw at first hand what difficult lives many carers have. I am now a carer for my 95-year-old mother. Perhaps the problem is that Carer’s Allowance is paid by the Government, but care packages are paid for by local government, so the Government does not have the appetite to pay carers more when they might only be saving the local council money. After all, why bother to help a group of people who are not going to give you trouble if you ignore them?
Just because somebody receives a pension does not mean their caring responsibilities stop. They carry on putting the needs of their loved ones before their own. We need a group of MPs with integrity, foresight, empathy and tenacity to take up this fight.
sara toMlin, herne Bay, Kent.