Carers: Why are so many forced down a path of poverty and prosecution?

Prosecutions of carers looking after sick and disabled loved ones for exceeding the earnings threshold for carer’s allowance prompted a wave of revulsion. Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s government has changed tack and increased the threshold by the largest ever amount, with a rise of £195 per month from last April. But does it go far enough with some demanding the minimum wage for carers?

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Their devotion to duty is unparalleled, resulting in a round-the-clock commitment that often requires them to put their own lives on hold. And it is not only sick and disabled loved ones who benefit from the unstinting efforts of their full-time carers.

Charity Carers UK says their work saves the government £184 billion a year, almost the equivalent of the NHS’s annual budget of £188.5 billion for 2023/24 in England.

The government has said it recognises the “immense contribution” of carers who “selflessly dedicate” their lives to others. But carers themselves have challenged successive UK governments to offer them more than just warm words. So what constitutes a fair deal for carers?

Increased Carer’s Allowance thresholds

In April, benefit rules were changed to allow carers to earn an additional £195 per month while still claiming their main entitlement – the Carer’s Allowance.

Carer’s allowance is worth £83.30 per week, and official figures show that in February 2024, there were 1,377,000 people claiming the benefit across the UK. But how meaningful is this change to the benefit rules for carers who very often have little or no available additional time for paid work?

Campaigner Leo Cleary, who is attempting to set up a new National Unpaid Carers Union and Forum, insists the government must do more for carers who “cannot afford the luxury of earning a wage”.

Cleary, 42, from Harlow, in Essex, who cares for his elderly mother-in-law, said that the recent move to allow carers to earn more was a “step in the right direction”, but “simply not enough”. He added, “For many, being an unpaid carer is a full-time job.

“Over 40% of those on carer’s allowance are still living in poverty, and the government needs to do more to help those who are struggling financially.”

Cleary maintains that he supports the minimum wage for carers, but says it would cost £64bn to implement, and this makes it a “distant dream”. Instead, he wants to secure financial stability for the worst-off carers.

He said these should be able to claim Universal Credit worth £361 to £400 per month, as well as Carer’s Allowance. This measure would cost around £1.64 billion, which amounts to about 1% of the money carers save the UK economy each year through their unpaid work.

Cutting poverty levels for carers

Charity Carers UK has calculated that paying carers the national minimum wage of £12.21 per hour, at 35 hours per week, would reduce poverty levels among carers by nearly 20%.

Chief executive Helen Walker says the benefit is the lowest of its kind, and they have been fighting “for decades” for a better deal.

Echoing Cleary, Walker insisted that increasing the carer’s allowance earnings limit does not help those who are unable to combine work and care.

She said, “It is, in many cases, unrealistic to expect people who are caring day in, day out to return to work without a better, reliable and affordable social care system in place.

“Our research has found that 10 million adults — 62% of current and former unpaid carers — say they have no choice in taking on their caring role due to a lack of alternative care options.”

Prosecutions of carers on the rise

Last year, stories began to emerge in The Guardian of carers being prosecuted by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) for inadvertently exceeding the earnings threshold for carer’s allowance, which, after April’s uplift, now stands at £849.33 per month.

A backlash against the prosecutions led the government to set up an independent review looking at overpayments of the benefit.

Vivienne Groom, from Tarvin, near Chester, was among those prosecuted.  The DWP took her £16,000 inheritance from her 91-year-old mother Maud after she admitted failing to declare part-time earnings. The carer insisted a social worker told her she did not have to declare the work and it was an honest mistake.

Campaigners like Katy Styles, who set up the We Care Campaign, have argued increases in the minimum wage mean it is “very easy” for carers to inadvertently breach the earnings threshold. Styles, whose group defends carers’ rights, called the prosecutions “unforgivable”.

In 2008, a parliamentary committee called for carer’s allowance to be “radically overhauled“ because the earnings limit “increased the risk of overpayments”.

The committee pointed out that if a carer gets a pay rise that puts them over the earnings limit by just a few pence, they lose the full value of the benefit.

In recent years, efforts to secure a minimum wage have gained momentum online. In 2019, David Shepherd’s campaign to pay carers the minimum wage attracted 84,500 signatories on the petition site 38 Degrees.

Shepherd, from Bideford, in Devon, gave up a job as an IT executive earning £95,000 to care for his wife, Catriona, who has dementia.

In exceptional circumstances, councils will allow family members to be paid a wage from a direct payment. Direct payments are usually made to family members to enable them to buy in help. Family members from black or ethnic minority backgrounds or rural areas who would struggle to find appropriate care may be paid from a direct payment.

A government spokesperson said the increase in the earnings threshold would benefit more than 60,000 carers by 2029/30.

“This is the biggest ever cash increase in the earnings threshold for carer’s allowance. We have also launched an independent review into social care, part of which will explore the needs of unpaid carers who provide vital care and support,” they added.