New call for Carer’s Allowance payments to increase to £1,600 each month
A new online petition is calling on the UK Government to increase Carer’s Allowance to match the National Minimum Wage rate of £11.44 per hour, which would give people a weekly payment of £400.40, or £1,601.60 every four-week pay period. The benefit is currently worth £81.90 each week (£327.60 every pay period) to people providing 35 hours of unpaid care and is set to rise by 1.7 per cent to £83.30 (£333.20 per pay period) from April next year.
Petition creator Emma Roberts argues that Carer’s Allowance is currently worth around £2.34 per hour, is a taxable benefit and “counted as income for other benefits like Universal Credit”. During the Autumn Budget on October 30, Chancellor Rachel Reeves announced that the weekly earnings limit for unpaid carers will rise from £151 to £196 from April - equivalent to 16 hours at the National Minimum Wage.
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The increase to the earnings threshold means someone on Carer’s Allowance will be able to earn over £10,000 a year from next year.
Scots claiming Carer Support Payment, the benefit that has replaced Carer’s Allowance north of the border, will need to wait until the Scottish Budget next month to find out if the Scottish Government will follow Westminster and increase the weekly earnings threshold for around 80,000 unpaid carers claiming the devolved benefit.
The ‘Increase Carer's Allowance to equal minimum wage’ petition has been posted on the petitions-parliament website. At 10,000 signatures it is entitled to a written response from the UK Government, at 100,000 it would be considered by the Petitions Committee for debate in Parliament.
The petition states: “Carer's Allowance is currently £327.60 every four weeks for people who care for someone for at least 35 hours per week. Around £2.34 per hour.
“The National Minimum Wage for people over 21 is £11.44 per hour which would be around £400 per week. Carers Allowance is a taxable benefit and is counted as income for other benefits like Universal Credit.
“A recent study has shown that unpaid carers in England and Wales contribute £445 million to the economy every day – that’s £162 billion per year. The study says that the value of unpaid care is equivalent to a second NHS in England and Wales. Despite this, carers receive Carers Allowance which amounts to £4,258.80 per year. Because it is taxable, it is effectively treated as a wage when claiming other benefits, which many carers have to do to survive.”
You can read the full petition online here.
