cover image: CARING FOR CARERS - POLICY OPTIONS FOR CARERS’ EMPLOYMENT AND FINANCIAL

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CARING FOR CARERS - POLICY OPTIONS FOR CARERS’ EMPLOYMENT AND FINANCIAL

23 Feb 2024

Taking up the support entitles the worker to request changes in working hours and flexibility up to three years after the caring break.26 • In Canada, people who have had to stop work to care can receive income replacement worth 55 per cent of earnings (up to a maximum of $650 a week) as part of the country’s broader employment insurance scheme. [...] The complexity of this rule has led to some carers inadvertently accruing overpayments which then need to be repaid – in some cases in excess of £20,000.29 Twenty-three per cent of carers report that financial concerns, such as the loss of carer’s allowance or other benefits, are a barrier to entering employment, education or training.30 Introducing a work allowance for carers on UC and reforming. [...] Age UK estimates that the cost to the economy of carers being unable to work is £5.3bn.31 FABIAN SOCIETY 13 CARING FOR CARERS Policy options (a) Introduce a work allowance for carers on universal credit. [...] Similarly, in 2019, the Fabian Society included carers alongside parents in a call for the creation of a work allowance for second earners.33 Both of these policies are likely to be cheap: few would initially be eligible and moving more people into work would generate savings to the exchequer that would offset the costs of the allowances. [...] Carers UK propose the earnings limit for carer’s allowance should increase from its current value of £139 per week to the value of 21 hours of work per week, pegged to, and automatically increasing in line with, the national living wage (NLW).34 A lower cost option would be to set the threshold to a lower number of hours on the National Living Wage but then ensure it was increased annually in line.

Authors

iggywood

Pages
31
Published in
United Kingdom