Carers and pension

[Tricia_1902]

OK, I have 4 years until I claim my pension BUT, this is for all those who are in this situation....WHY, when a carer reaches retirement age and they can claim a state pension, does their carers allowance stop? Do their caring responsibilities stop? No, does the person they are caring for stop receiving THEIR benefit when THEY reach retirement age? No, so why does carers allowance stop?
It is about time Carers were recognised for what they do and actually receive a decent 'benefit'!
Please forgive the 'rant' it is just something I feel very strongly about

[bowlingbun]

I raised this issue at the Carers UK AGM in London, in 2004, but it's still unresolved I'm afraid.
As a 70 year old carer, I think pensioner carers need MORE help, not less.

[Charles_2112]

It dates back to the very earliest days of the social security system. All the way back to 1910.

The year before, Lloyd George introduced the Retirement Pension, which was worth 7/6 a week to qualifying 70 year olds. So in 1910, he introduced Sickness and Unemployment Benefits. But as it was possible to be too sick to work and to not have a job to go back to, a clause was introduced to prevent people being able to claim both - it was referred to as "overlapping benefits", and prevented people from claiming more than one benefit that was related in any way, and included the new pension.

When the Welfare State was introduced, National Insurance contributions were protected by receipt of the right benefits, which were the "overlapping" benefits (except pensions as pensioners don't have to pay NI).

When Carers Allowance was introduced (as Invalid Care Allowance) in 1974, it was added to the list of overlapping benefits.

There's absolutely no reason why that can't be changed, but governments/politicians hate creating precedents. And they hate "giving away" money in benefits form because they believe it encourages laziness.

They can try my life any time.