Anyone given up on Carers Allowance?

[Henrietta]

I'm finding Carers Allowance a huge pain in the bum. I'm constantly telling the office they have given me too many hours of work and am sending endless emails to and fro about earnings calculations, then I am running to fro to the bank to sort out suitable pension transfers. I meticulaously counted my earnings and counted my pension but last year they refused me 3 months worth of CA because I paid the pension in during the month I did the work and not the month that I received pay for the work. I'm having to tally up mileage for each client I visit and argue practically every month with DWP over the phone. Then I have to print off pension statement, fill out DWP forms and trawl through my client list for mileage, then go out to post the claim every month.
I am coming to the conclusion it would be less stressful just to work another 8 hours a week and stop worrying.
If I had capacity timewise I could earn more if I wanted to and be better off financially.
Any thoughts?
It is most definitely the hardest £59.00 I earn and that doesn't include the caring!

[Floyd_1504]

£59??? best check that. last years CA was £61.35.

[Henrietta]

Sorry to quote wrong figure- It arrives so randomly and infrequently, and in lumps of varying amount depending on how many weeks they have awarded that I have lost the plot

[Floyd_1504]

We all do that Henrietta, isn't it nice to know you are not alone.lol
madfloyd

[caravanj]

It would be nice to be able to choose whether or not to give up on it as it's not even an option for pensioner carers.

[Scally]

Funnily enough, I went through all that record keeping grief for a while at first, and after a bit the CA unit just gave up on asking for details. Maybe they just figured I was always one jump ahead of them, I honestly don't know, but they haven't asked about my earnings for the last two years and I just get automatically renewed.
Yes, a few hours of paperwork at home is worth £62 a week, even though I pay tax at 20% on my CA, making it closer to £50

[Henrietta]

Yes I have come to that conclusion this week that £62.00ish can't be sniffed at but it seems amighty frustrating rigmarole to claim it. I wonder if there is any hope if the powers that be change hands whether the system would be reviewed in our favour or if we should just be thankful for what is on offer before it potentialy evaporates.