An online petition is calling on the UK Government to introduce a new benefit for parents who are full-time carers of a disabled child. The proposal indicates that payment should be the same as the National Minimum Wage of £9.50 per hour, which is the equivalent of £332.50 each week.
Carer’s Allowance is a benefit delivered by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) worth £69.70 per week to someone who provides care for a friend or family member for at least 35 hours each week. The benefit is paid every four weeks, amounting to £278.80 each pay period, however, Leah Sumner, who created the petition on the petitions-parliament website, has highlighted that the current payment rate is the equivalent to £1.99 per hour.
She said: “Some parents are unable to work as they need to provide full-time care to their child, through the day or the night or for both. We want the [UK] Government to introduce a benefit for parents who are full-time carers of their disabled children, set at £332.50 a week (35 x minimum wage of £9.50 an hour).”
Leah continued: “There is not enough support to help with the loss of income for parents that are unable to work and need to provide full-time care.
“The child’s DLA does not to replace an income, it is to ‘help with extra costs of looking after a child’ with disabilities.
“The Carer's Allowance benefit equates to £1.99 an hour for 35 hours a week, and is ‘a benefit that provides some financial recognition that a carer may not be able to work full-time’.”
She added: “Many parents who are full-time carers to disabled children will not be eligible for Universal Credit.”
The petition finishes with a plea that the UK “Government should support all parents who need to be full-time carers for their disabled children”.
The petition is open until November 30, 2022 and has received more than 2,450 signatures of support so far - at 10,000 the UK Government is required to provide an official response.
You can view the full petition statement online here.
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