Submitted by Emma Roberts on Wednesday 30th October 2024
Published on Tuesday 5th November 2024
Current status: Open
Open until: Monday 5th May 2025
Current Signatures: 868
(count is updated approximately hourly)
Relevant Departments
Increase Carer's Allowance to equal minimum wage
Carer's Allowance is currently £327.60 every 4 weeks for people who care for someone for at least 35 hours per week. Around £2.34 p/hour.
The national minimum wage for people over 21 is £11.44 p/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.
If you want to sign this petition (as opposed to merely discuss it), you need to do that on the government's e-Petitions website.
52.14.0.59 Thu, 14 Nov 2024 22:49:22 +0000
