Carers Allowance.
The weekly rate is £48.65. This is reduced by the amount of certain other benefits, including State Pension, that you receive. If you receive certain other benefits at £48.65 or more a week, Carer's Allowance cannot be paid to you as well.
Just so you know what a carer gets. This is paid to someone ( A Carer) who looks someone, usually a family member who is disabled to the point of being unable to look after themselves.
From my point of view as a bus driver a carer used to be someone who travelled on a bus with a person who was so disabled as to make it impossible for them to take a bus ride unattended. This disability could be either physical or mental. I say ‘used to be’ because now the Government has decided that carers do not come in the "Core Validity" of Concessionary Bus Passes. The core validity only covers people who are over 60 years of age or are disabled.
Most people who get on a bus and have a pass because they are disabled can do so with little or no problem, indeed many are on their way to or from work. But, and to quote just one example, the young lad who boards the bus in a wheel chair needs a carer with him as he is unable to propel his wheel chair and unable to communicate his needs. He does very much enjoy his trips out on the bus. However the carer who assists him on his trips no longer gets free travel and has to pay the bus fare. Bus fares are not exactly cheap especially if your total income is £48.65. For this carer, a return trip to the town centre is £2.40 which represents 5% of her income. That’s 5% of income spent on one short bus trip, a longer trip say to Brixham and back would be nearly 9%. So while the disabled person can make as many trips as they like for free the carer is severely restricted in the number she/he can. So there is little point in Central Government (the caring government) going to the expense of giving the severely disabled bus passes as they will not be able to use them.
Now as a bus driver I used to see carer passes very rarely, 2 a month would be a lot and I do know that up to February this year Torbay Council had issued less than 200 carer passes. Not because Torbay Council are mean, tight fisted, uncaring sods, it’s just that there are not that many people who need carer passes. Based on the figure of 200 carer passes out of a total of over 30 000 concessionary passes this means 0.7% of passes were carer passes. Out of the total cost for bus passes of one billion pounds carer passes would have cost Central Government an extra £7 million. Now £7 million sounds a lot, give me 7 million quid and this blog would be renamed ‘No longer Busdriving’ about 15 seconds later but to Central Government it is a less than a day in the War in Iran. To disabled people who can not make bus trips on their own it is a life time stuck indoors while life and the buses pass by without an apparent care, or carer, on board.
If you live in the UK please email your MP and ask him to speak to Gordon Brown about extending carer passes into the Core Validity of Concessionary Bus Passes.
Please note; Don't just copy this post and send it to your MP as it will simply get blocked.
Click here for your MP's name and email address
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2 comments:
A very good point and one that I have communicated to Torbay's Learning Disability and Older Persons Partnership Boards.
Our council ducked out of the passes because they didnt want to rock the boat with the DfT and provide something that isnt legislated for. Next year perhaps?
My council (Mid Bedfordshire) managed to lose all details of my old non-national pass, and I landed up dealing with the head of customer services about getting my national pass.
We have a local concession for "with companion" that has continued into the new scheme, though, of course, it is only valid in the local council area and in a couple of neighbouring council areas. The local buses tend not to be accessible to me as I'm a wheelchair user, also my parents, with whom I live and who do much of work looking after me, are both over 60. However, inspired by your post and seeing as I had the 'ear' of the relevant people, I decided to make a point that the local "with companion" maybe should be automatic for those, like me, with middle or higher rate care component of Disability Living Allowance - the rates that entitle someone to Carer's Allowance for looking after you.
South Yorkshire PTE make their "with companion" concession automatic for people with middle or higher rate care component DLA (I sent the link to my council). In my area, it supposedly needs endorsement of the application by your GP, which I was loath to bother him for under the circumstances. I qualify for a pass 'as of right' by having higher rate mobility component DLA.
Anyway - I finally got my pass on Friday - with the +C mark top right to indicate 'with companion'!
There aren't that many people who would want to use a bus and who have middle or higher rate care component DLA. The Scottish system automatically grants 'with companion' entitlement to those with middle or higher rate care component DLA, Attendance Allowance (which is the same thing for those over 60 at the time it is first awarded) or who are registered blind - and it is valid nationally. Is there room for such a concession in the English system, I wonder?
I tried to do my bit, anyway - and my council have promised to think further about the criteria for the local 'with companion' concession when they next review the scheme.
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