8,119 Newcastle informal carers’ will be able to earn more in a part-time paid job without losing Carers Allowance (CA) with hundreds more being eligible for CA for the first time.
The changes revealed in the UK government’s budget last week have been welcomed by carers support groups and politicians across the city. At the moment carers, mostly women, looking after a vulnerable adult with health issues and a disabled child for 35 hours a week are entitled to the weekly CA of £81.90 and can earn up to £151 (after NI and expenses) in a part-time job.
From April 2025 thousands of carers will be able to work 16-hours a week at the National Minimum Wage – £196 without losing Carers Allowance.
The uplift in the earnings limit is the biggest increase since Carers Allowance was brought in in 1976.
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Coun Stephen Lambert, who represents the Kenton area, this week welcomed the changes. He said: ‘
‘Informal carers in the city and elsewhere are the Welfare State’s forgotten army and play a key role in providing emotional, social and practical support to loved ones with long-term health related conditions and disabilities.”
”Family members, neighbours and friends are providing the bulk of informal community care across Newcastle and the north-east region. In Kenton alone there are 406 residents successfully claiming CA. With the planned changes more carers should be able to claim this benefit whilst earning up to £10,000 a year”.
Helen Walker, CEO of Carers UK, said:
” We found four in 10 unpaid carers were pushed out of work due to the problems with the earnings limit plunging many into the poverty. The new measures will help many more unpaid carers to stay in paid work.”
