Earnings rules for Carer’s Allowance are limiting the amount of paid work many parent carers can take on, a new poll by the charity Contact shows.
Of the 815 parent carers who responded, 36% said they had turned down extra hours or pay because of the earnings limit, while 31% had reduced or stopped working.
A further 29% were not currently in paid employment and just 4% said the rules hadn’t affected their decisions about work.
Carer’s Allowance is currently worth £86.45 a week. But carers can lose the full payment if they earn more than £204 a week.
Contact said this creates a ‘cliff edge’, making some parent carers reluctant to increase their hours or income.
One parent told the charity: ‘Gradual reduction would be much better than the immediate stop. Going over by a few pound isn’t worth losing the whole Carer’s Allowance.’
Another described the challenge of fitting employment around their disabled child’s needs: ‘My daughter has poor health. When she is well or in school I could work more, and then less other times.’
The latest research from Carers UK shows 1.2 million unpaid carers live in poverty, with parent carers and families raising disabled children more at risk because of their inability to work.
The findings come as Contact responds to the government’s call for evidence on the future of Carer’s Allowance. The charity said they want the current earnings threshold replaced with a gradual taper, so payments reduce as income rises rather than stopping altogether.
Against this backdrop, in a separate indicative poll of 45 parent carers, 84% said they were in support of an earnings taper.
Among its recommendations, the charity is also asking the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) to make greater use of real-time earnings information. This could reduce the amount of reporting required from carers and help prevent overpayments.
One parent said: ‘There is no online calculator either – it’s horrendous to calculate the implications of work, pensions, childcare etc.’
Commenting on the survey results, Derek Sinclair at Contact said: ‘Parent carers should not have to worry that taking on a few extra hours at work could suddenly leave them without their Carer’s Allowance.
‘Our polling shows that this isn’t just a problem with complicated benefit rules. The current cliff edge is affecting real decisions about work. Two thirds of parent carers who responded told us they had turned down extra hours or pay, or reduced or stopped work.
‘The government has an opportunity to make Carer’s Allowance simpler, fairer and more supportive of carers who want paid work. Replacing the cliff edge with a gradual taper and making earnings rules more predictable would be an important step forward.’
Image: engin akyurt/UnSplash
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