The Stigma of Carers Allowance

The Stigma of Carers Allowance

My wife Angela gets carers allowance for looking after our 20 year old daughter full time. The amount for looking after Dodger is around £83.30 per week. I am not in this blog criticising the amount even though it is very poor. This blog is about people’s attitude towards individuals like my wife who receive the carers allowance. Dodger our daughter needs 24/7 care, this care is done by my wife and I alone. There is 168 hours in a week, which 10 of those hours Dodger spends at with outside carers. This leaves 158 hours a week that we do the rest.

Let’s say we divide 158 hours by two (Angela and myself Matthew), that is 79 hours each that we are on 24/7 call. Make the calculation, £83.30 divided by 79 hours, this calculates at around £1.05 a hour, but this also is if she is carrying out exactly half the caring. So you don’t need to be highly intelligent to see that my wife is not doing this for the money. She’s doing this because Dodger needs the care.

Government Employee Attitude

In the meeting I had with a Government Employee Officer, it brought to light the attitudes that are out there towards people who receive carers allowance. This gentleman tried to tell me that it wasn’t a job, which in return I got quite aggravated over, I asked him if he wanted to reconsider and take back what he actually said, he said no, your wife does not work. This made me even more angry because he couldn’t actually see what his opinion meant.

People need to stop making assumptions, being ignorant towards others. Especially when they haven’t tried to understand, or to find out what it actually means being physically/mentally disabled, and not just for the actual person with the disability, but also the ones who have given up their lives to make sure that the person with the disability has some kind of life. It is a full time job and some!

We have given our lives

Yes, Dodger is our daughter, and we do everything we can for her, to give her as much love and the attention she needs. We (Angela and I), will never know the freedom, the ability to do things like a parent with a grown child. We are devoted 100%, what we ask for is not sympathy boohoo, feel sorry for us, it is more Empathy. When we are accused of being takers, and not givers, these people should stop and just think, what were we doing before our daughter was born? Were we employed? Did we pay into the system? Did we have dreams of our own?

Both my Wife and I were in full time work from school up until Dodger was diagnosed (so at least 16 years and 18 years respectively), that is when Angela had to take a step away from working full time and become Dodgers full time carer. I carried on working not employed any more but self employed, because of the irregular times I was available to work and amount there of. A normal 9 to 5 was not achievable, so I had to choose a different job to accommodate the situation.

So yes, the “You do not work, it isn’t a job” attitude is insensitive, offensive, thoughtless and entirely wrong. It shows exactly how wrong perceptions are towards people who care full time for family members. 

Thank you

Matthew