Carer’s Allowance

Nesil Caliskan Excerpts

Wednesday 16th October 2024 Commons Chamber

[Mel Stride]

Indeed. What we want, ideally, is a system that is as simple as possible. The motion suggests that we bring in a taper, but that would be a complication of the system. I will come to why there are problems with that. It is easy to suggest these things, but the detail often makes them really quite complicated.

The last Government made it clear, when someone applied for this particular benefit, exactly what the arrangements were. When uprating occurred every year, we wrote to everybody to explain the uprating and to inquire as to whether any changes in their circumstances or earnings might impact their entitlement to benefits. And it was we, not this Government, who in our May update to our fraud plan brought in the pilots for texting to alert those on carer’s allowance that they may—I say “may” because the Department will not know—be close to exceeding the earnings limit. I am pleased that the Minister has indicated that the Government will continue with our fine work, but let us be very clear who it was that started those particular measures.

[Nesil Caliskan (Barking) (Lab)]

On that point, would the right hon. Member therefore accept that the Department for Work and Pensions is in a complete mess and that unpaid carers in our constituencies are having to pay the price and bear the brunt of that because the system is clearly not working for them?

[Mel Stride]

No, I would not. I am not ruling out the possibility that it may yet become a mess, but certainly on our watch it was never a mess. In fact, it dispenses about £280 billion-worth of transfer payments both to pensioners and through the benefits system, and by and large it does a remarkable job in doing that efficiently. I want to pay tribute to all the officials and civil servants that work in that Department. They work incredibly hard and, for the vast majority of their time, produce outstanding results. None the less, of course, we can always point to elements of the system where things break down, and we must always strive to get better. That is why I welcome the Government’s review.

The suggestion that the Government should not seek the repayment of overpayments is absurd. We cannot go that far. If someone goes over a threshold, we cannot say, “Do not worry about it.” We might as well not have the threshold in the first place. By all means, change the threshold—that may be a perfectly legitimate thing to do. Otherwise, the threshold should be removed altogether.

Some Members will perfectly legitimately raise failings in the system, but when I was Secretary of State there were examples of fraud. For instance, one individual was working 100 hours a week as a taxi driver while apparently still having the time to spend 35 hours a week looking after a loved one. To my mind, that is clearly fraud, so we cannot write off absolutely everything. The Department does the right thing by looking at this issue on a case-by-case basis.

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[Rebecca Long Bailey (Salford) (Ind)]

I very much welcome the Minister’s opening comments. It is clear that she is fully cognisant of many of the issues that I am about to raise. I also welcome the announcement of the independent Government review of carer’s allowance overpayments, which I hope will be carried out urgently. I hope it will consider writing off substantial overpayments, where it is clear that carers should have been notified sooner.

On the wider issues faced by unpaid carers, I start by reading out an email from a constituent:

“I cared for my mother, who had Alzheimer’s and vascular dementia plus severe osteoarthritis, for several years. At the time of this, if the person requiring care was deemed capable of performing any self-care tasks, only part of the Carer’s Allowance was paid. My mother would, occasionally, wipe a flannel over her face and was therefore deemed to be capable of self-care, despite all other evidence.

Caring for someone is not a 9 to 5 job, it is often a 24 hour job, as in my case, with no break for the carer (as few are ever told about respite care). Those who manage employment outside the home are also overburdened, as they have no time to decompress from their paid employment before having to spend their time at home caring for someone.

Due to the nature of being a carer, the carer’s physical and mental health often declines and goes untreated as they often have no help with their situation from the Authorities or, should they have them, siblings. That alone can impact the carer’s own physical and mental health, but carers go unnoticed until there is a crisis.

To only receive the paltry current Carer’s Allowance, which will barely cover utilities and Council Tax, ignoring food and clothing, is an insult to people who are working far harder than most but remain unseen as it is not deemed to be a ‘real job’ and is considered ‘easy.’ Only those who have cared for another adult know this is blatantly untrue.”

Sadly, my constituent’s feelings are not rare. Many people care for their loved ones out of love and, all too often, it impacts on their ability to work, resulting in many living in poverty. A new report from Carers UK and WPI Economics found that 1.2 million unpaid carers are living in poverty, while one in 10 of all carers are in deep poverty. It is not hard to understand why, as carer’s allowance is the lowest benefit of its kind—currently, just £81.90 a week—and it is available only to carers who can prove that they provide more than 35 hours of unpaid care a week.

[Nesil Caliskan]

Does my hon. Friend agree that the evidence shows that it is disproportionately women who are carers, and therefore women who experience those levels of poverty because of the low figure she mentioned?

[Rebecca Long Bailey]

I welcome my hon. Friend’s comments and I agree with them.

To solve the crisis, Care UK’s modelling suggests that an immediate uplift, an increase in the earnings limit and an earnings taper would lift huge numbers out of poverty. However, a number of brutal loopholes, already highlighted by the right hon. Member for Kingston and Surbiton (Ed Davey), need to be addressed urgently, including the rules on young carers and students. Many people do not know that carer’s allowance is not paid to those studying for more than 21 hours a week. A number of young carers in Salford have told me that that means they are often excluded from any support. The pressures on them to study and care for their loved ones are immense, all while often living in extreme poverty. Sadly, many feel they have no option but to leave education aged 16.

Further, if a carer is looking after more than one person for a cumulative amount of 35 hours a week, the carer is not eligible to receive carer’s allowance. If two people share the care, each providing 35 hours a week, only one person can claim carer’s allowance.

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[Nesil Caliskan (Barking) (Lab)]

I thank the right hon. Member for Kingston and Surbiton (Ed Davey) for securing this important debate. I have almost 10,000 constituents in Barking who are unpaid carers, providing a vital and caring backbone for the community. My constituency has one of the highest numbers of carers in the country, and we know that if those individuals stopped caring and delivering their vital role, our overstretched care system would crumble and the economy grind to a halt. Perhaps most importantly, the most vulnerable people in our communities would stop receiving the care and compassion that they get from their relatives and friends.

But carers do not stop, because they care about their friend or family member who needs that support. Whether it is a young carer looking after a parent, or a daughter or son looking after their elderly parent, such care is vital in our community. Instead of a system that provides them with a safety net to help with the additional costs that come with caring for someone, the system the Government have inherited is a real mess. We are in a situation where our constituents face bills from the DWP landing on their doorstep.

The current carer’s allowance system is cruel, with a punitive cliff edge that forces unpaid carers to choose between earning a basic income or caring for their loved one. It means that if a carer goes over the earnings allowance by £1, or indeed by 1p as we have heard in a number of speeches, they are forced to pay back the full amount that they received, which could be a figure in the thousands. Instead of a system that understands the need for flexibility, given the nature of being a carer and the realities of trying to fit paid work around that, often with zero-hours contracts and earnings that change from week to week, the system penalises carers and threatens them with criminal prosecution. It is just another broken system left by the previous Government that this Government have to sort out, and another part of the foundations of our country that we will fix to rebuild Britain.

As I stand to speak on this important topic, I think of the 10,000 carers in my constituency. Vital work will now progress, and hopefully it will be concluded swiftly by the Government, so that carers never have to choose between earning a proper income and caring for a loved one.