Copyright jerseyeveningpost
THE government is facing growing calls to scrap a “ludicrous” rule which prevents a home carer’s allowance from being received alongside an old age pension – as the JEP launches its campaign to change the decades-old law. The ‘Time to Care’ campaign will seek to highlight the struggle of those being placed in what support network Carers Jersey has described as an “impossible” situation. It comes after this newspaper highlighted Mark Jones’s demands for the removal of legislation that prevents the home carer’s allowance – currently £1,183 paid every four weeks – from being issued alongside other benefits such as an old-age pension. Mr Jones, whose wife died from cancer 13 years ago and is a full-time carer to his two adult children, has demanded an “immediate suspension” of the Social Security (Overlapping of Benefits) (Jersey) Order 1975. Under the current rules, those receiving HCA who reach pension age face a choice of either continuing with that benefit or switching to their old age pension. Hundreds of Islanders have since voiced support for Mr Jones, who has argued that the “unjust” policy “punishes” carers and needs to be changed immediately. One Islander, Kay Donnelly (68), told the JEP she became aware of the “ludicrous” rule a few years ago while caring for her mother. She was eventually unable to continue doing so with just the home carer’s allowance, explaining that her 93-year-old mother – whose care needs had since grown – was now in a residential home. “If they’d let me have my pension and my carer’s allowance it would save them £6,000 a month,” Ms Donnelly said. “It just doesn’t make any sense.” Another Islander, Penny Chapman (56), who is a full-time carer for her adult nuerodivergent daughter, said she had learned about the rule after Mr Jones first highlighted the issue in 2021. “I just couldn’t understand it,” she said. “At the end of the day, your pension is your money that’s been deducted from your wages.” Commenting on whether she thought the rule might be changed in the wake of the campaign, Ms Chapman added: “If they do get it pushed through I hope that people like Mark get it paid from when it should have been paid – it should be backdated.” On Thursday, Social Security Minister Lyndsay Feltham faced questions about the matter during a hearing of the Health and Social Security Scrutiny Panel. She highlighted the multiple routes of support available to both family carers and people with disabilities receiving care in their own home, including the carer’s allowance as well as the ancillary, personal care and mobility components of income support. Additionally, adults with care needs receiving care at home are eligible for the Long-Term Care scheme, which provides up to £1,451.31 a week to support care and respite costs. Asked whether she was planning to make changes to the 1975 Order, Deputy Feltham said: “I think that the issues that have been raised have been conflated and not necessarily understood appropriately.” The minister continued: “If I was to change the Overlapping Benefits Order, would we then, for example, enable somebody to claim STIA at the same time as parental leave? So it’s a wider issue than just home carer’s allowance.” Panel member Deputy Jonathan Renouf noted that had Guernsey overturned similar legislation and allowed a carer’s allowance to be paid at the same time as any benefit under the island’s Social Insurance Law. But Deputy Feltham said that “people would be worse-off under the Guernsey system then they are currently now under the Jersey system”. During the same hearing, Sue Duhamel – an associate director in the Cabinet Office – pointed to differences between the islands around support for home care costs, which she said were covered “consistently and methodically” in Jersey. HCA is not part of Guernsey’s social security system – it is means tested and taxfunded. Deputy Feltham said: “We need to be really careful to understand the problem it is that needs to be resolved and then the right solution to that problem.” She told the panel that it was a “complex area”. “We need to outline what support is available, because home carer’s allowance isn’t the only avenue for financial support for people caring. “Also – I really want to make this point – what we must do is make sure that the person receiving care is right at the forefront and centre of this.” The Minister continued: “Where people have the capacity to make decisions themselves, we need to be empowering people to make those decisions themselves as well. “It might appear on the surface of it, that changing the Order in relation to overlapping benefits would appear simple. What I’m saying is it isn’t that simple, and I don’t believe that it would resolve the issues that I think the panel are concerned about.”
