Yep … if claiming CA , that’s £ 1.20 per hour … a little short of the £ 11.50 per hour being proposed for paid care workers ?
As a rough and ready calculation , and assuming no tack on benefits , £ 240 ish per week to reach the Official Poverty Line … say £ 7.00 per hour
based on a 35 hour week ( Minimum time spending caring for CA to kick in ) to keep the maths fairly simple.
( Compare that figure with the basic State Pension … then you begin to see why 1 in 4 live below that Line !!! )
There again , a post code lottery … regional variations in costs for one ( London … £ 300 per week ? ).
Any claiming Housing Benefit … that gap now increasing which can be classified as a fixed cost " Deduced " from the total benefit package ?
Using that figure as a base for negotiations , tack on the eligibility issues , and many carers will feel , at least , reassured ???
On TV this morning, it was mentioned by Preti Patel, Home Secretary, that milliions of pounds were being made available to charities working with people during the crisis.
I would like to know if Carers UK had applied for a part of this funding?
Has anything been granted to CUK?
( " Unpaid carers " … how are they to identify themselves as such , especially those not in receipt of CA ???
Oh , for the want of a nationwide carers card … another member of the Magnificent Seven ??? )
A note of caution … a letter , now to await an answer ?
I just wanted to get in touch as we saw some comments about your experience of using our helpline recently which I’ve passed on to our Helpline Manager. Sorry for the delay in my response - I missed your post on Friday and have been alerted to it today.
The Helpline Manager was really concerned to hear of the experience that you described. They will be investigating this, and are keen to put things right if we can. To help them investigate this, we would be really grateful if you could share with us any of following pieces of information that you recall, if you are happy and comfortable to do so:
Which email address you sent your enquiry to, and which email address you sent your enquiry from?
The date you sent your email enquiry?
At what time roughly you telephoned us on 10th April?
Which number did you dial to contact us?
The name of the adviser that you spoke to?
Please can you send your response to me by private message or send it to forum@carersuk.org
Thank you so much for any information that you can share with us.
This is an issue I’ve been banging on about for a long, long time.
The Care Act makes it clear that there should be an assessment of needs, and a personal budget calculated. Then there should be discussion with the client to find out how they want it to be spent, and who they would like to provide it. The Act makes it clear that this should include family carers, wherever they live.
Hampshire have what appears to be a blanket ban on paying family members. My son is brain damaged, but there is one thing he is very good at, looking after steam engines. I know it’s odd, but we’ve owned a series of steam rollers, traction engines etc. and M always helped his dad get the engines ready for shows, look after them at shows, and ride to and from shows in our own 32 ton lorry with low loader. M can light it up, knows how to operate something called an injector which works using the Venturi effect, knows what to oil, which oil to use, etc.etc. All the local steam engine owners know us so M wants me to take him to rallies to see his friends. The council refuse, they say that agency staff can take him. M doesn’t want a female who knows nothing whatsoever about engines to take him, who can’t support him to say what is happening to the family engines. When we are at a show, it is not safe for anyone who doesn’t understand engines to be in the roped off area.
The council’s latest way of avoiding this issue is simply to ignore M’s interests completely! No mention either of his garden tractor, his other pride and joy that he’s owned for over 25 years, and is in excellent condition.
Instead, his main activity is “shopping”. They take him to Poole, he has a National Trust Companion pass so could go to Brownsea Island for free (as long as he paid for the ferry, not a problem) but instead they take him “shopping”. Shopping doesn’t even include making sure he’s had a drink!
This is my personal example, but there are plenty of other examples I could use. The council deny that they can pay parents, to save money. Thousands of pounds have been unspent in M’s case!
Hello bowlingbun - I’ve spoken with colleagues about your question and have the following response.
The amount of money rolled out to charities from Government has actually been relatively small. Estimates suggest the sector has lost £4billion and the total figure given was £750m. Of this £200m has been allocated to hospices, £350 million to small local delivery charities and the additional £200m is to be allocated to larger organisations working on the covid crisis. We have not received any of this funding, nor is it likely we will be eligible to apply, but we are monitoring it. In the meantime there are a number of other funds that have come out of Government and corporates and trusts for charities at this time which we have applied for and in some instances we have been successful. For example, this has enabled us to expand the telephone helpline service from 12 hours a week to 45 hours a week along with additional helpline email support – we will be announcing these funders in the coming days.
Hello bowlingbun - I’ve spoken with colleagues in our policy team about your question on local authority funded care being withdrawn and have the following response:
As of yet we have heard of no local authorities using the Care Act easement measures. However, that is not to say that some carers will not have noticed a difference – for example most day centres have closed and there is less availability of care services due to staffing pressures and social distancing.
Our position on the Care Act Easements is below:
Although we recognise that these are temporary measures which should help local services better cope with coronavirus, this comes at a time when social care services have been cut back year after year. Many families who do receive some form of care have a much reduced package of support, having had to meet much higher thresholds to get the care they need. As local authorities respond to coronavirus, we know carers are hugely concerned about whether the services they depend on will continue, and if they’re cut, whether they’ll be reinstated.
This guidance on the Care Act easements makes it clear that local authorities should continue to support unpaid carers where possible. Carers UK will be closely monitoring the impact of local decision-making on unpaid carers and feeding back their concerns to Government. If carers are not clearly recognised and supported during this emergency, then it will only mean that more people become unwell and will need even greater support from our already over-stretched public services.
On TV, the Home Secretary said the money was there, you just have to apply for it. That statement was then very misleading, it gave the impression that is was for all organisations whose members needed extra help because of the crisis, surely carers come into that category.
I have been listening increasingly intently for mention of family carers, as I type they are talking about testing social care staff, but what about family carers worried that they might have the virus, or their carees?
At the beginning of the crisis, I had an email telling me to go and get my son asap, something I couldn’t do for health reasons. The agency are currently giving him just HALF his usual care. Beyond that, there is no safety net. Many of his friends are now with parents full time. For pensioner parent carers, if we get ill, who will care for our adult children with learning difficulties? There are no spare carers, especially living in an area with one of the highest populations of elderly in the country, where there is competing demands for LD and Elderly.
A NATIONAL BADGE FOR SOCIAL CARE WORKERS - WHAT ABOUT FAMILY CARERS???
It’s just been announced by Matt Hancock that there is going to be a national badge for all social care workers.
Will this be available to unpaid carers too, some working 168 hours a week for free??
It’s also been said that people in hospital who are “clinically” fit to go home should go home as quickly as possible as that was the best place for them. No mention of the impact on family carers if there is no one else to care for them!
‘Every little helps!’. I say cheekily and from a distance! Did she mention how much? A couple of thousand over five years? That much? I really don’t know.
It must have been sufficient for the health minister and the ceo to have satisfied their own objectives in part, but satisfy few others.
I sincerely hope that Michael’s intention of investigating what went wrong when you got the response to got, will yield some positive outcome for future users.
Trouble is that it takes big bucks, staff and training and understanding to operate a help line truly responsive to its clients.
Even if you have the resources, today who really is current and knowledgeable to respond?
Michael, I wonder if various charities/nonprofits are considering pooling their resources in these difficult times?