Recently the UK Prime Minister David Cameron declared that it was his 'moral duty' to cut taxes. Last week his jolly government announced a £15bn road improvement scheme. Neither of these policies affect me hugely but they must be good news nonetheless. If the Government have enough money to spend on roads and tax reductions then presumably they have enough to end the constant round of austerity cuts which do hit me pretty hard.

This next bit is a bit dull but nonetheless essential. A living wage is the amount of money deemed necessary for you to be able to live adequately. The national minimum wage is the lowest you can legally pay an employee in the UK. This seems odd, but the minimum wage is lower than the living wage. This is why millions of people, like me, are able to claim benefits despite being in full time work. Cares like me often have the additional handicap of supporting a partner who isn't even able to earn less than a living wage because their disability prevents them from working.

One system for dealing with the wage discrepancy is tax credits, which basically pay me back some of my taxes. When R and I first got these years ago we were pleasantly surprised ¹ to find that this also entitled us to free prescriptions. Usually in the UK you have to pay a fee for each prescription, which very rarely covers the cost of the medicine, but is a general contribution to the NHS. If, as a person with a severe health condition, you need a lot of prescriptions, this can still add up, especially when only one of you is working. So for us the free prescriptions are worth their weight in gold and you can imagine our disappointment to discover that –guess what- we don't get them anymore.

In order to qualify for free prescriptions (via the tax credits route, there are other ways) you have to have the 'disability element'. It used to be the case that you could get that if one or other of the claimants of tax credits (you or your partner) was in receipt of Disability Living Allowance. Now you still have to get DLA but also to be working at least 16 hours. So you must be disabled enough to get DLA but not so disabled that it prevents you from working. Bearing in mind plenty of people who can work despite their disability will have a hard time persuading anyone to hire them because of their disability, this change starts to impact on a lot of people

So here is the catch 22 that the care is left with. If you are working enough hours to claim working tax credits (30) you are earning too much for your disabled partner to claim job seekers' allowance for themselves. You're not earning enough money to support yourself, let alone your partner, because the law does not require you to be paid that much money. On top of this you are, for no money, taking on the work and the expense involved in the care of your partner which is the responsibility of the state. The 28th of November is National Carers' Rights Day. Something to ponder there, perhaps.

benjaminpmoore

24.11.14 Front Page

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