Written evidence submitted by Grandparents
Plus
Grandparents Plus
is the national charity which champions the vital role of grandparents
and the wider family in children's lives - especially when they
take on the caring role in difficult family circumstances.
We work to support grandparents
and the wider family by:
- Campaigning for change
so that their contribution to children's wellbeing and care is
valued and understood.
- Providing evidence, policy
solutions and training so that they
get the services and support they need to help children thrive.
- Building alliances and networks
so that they can have a voice and support each other, especially
when they become children's full-time carers.
1. Grandparents Plus welcomes the opportunity to
submit evidence to the Committee on the proposals set out out
in the Department of Work and Pensions White Paper Universal Credit:
welfare that works.
2. We support the aims of the reforming welfare to
make the benefit system fairer and simpler and to make work pay.
We particularly support the extension of disregards to enable
some groups to earn significantly more before their benefit begins
to be withdrawn. However we have a number of concerns and questions
about how the new system works.
BACKGROUND: GRANDPARENTS
AND OTHER
FAMILY AND
FRIENDS CARERS
3. Our main concerns centre around the
implications of the reforms for grandparents and other family
and friends carers who are raising children when the parents are
unable to do so and would otherwise be in care. There are estimated
to be around 200,000 family and friends carers in the UK, who
are bringing up children as a result of very difficult family
circumstances such as parental death, drug or alcohol abuse, severe
disability or illness, imprisonment or child abuse or neglect.
Most family and friends carers and the children they are raising
are not officially recognised or counted (apart from the small
minority who are legally recognised as foster carers). As a result,
this group are largely invisible to both policy makers and service
providers, including the DWP and JobCentre Plus.
4. We are particularly concerned that
reduced benefit entitlements combined with local authority spending
cuts will impact negatively on this group and lead to placements
breaking down and more children going into care. It would cost
£12 billion each year in care costs alone the children they
care for were in the care system. Even a 10% reduction in family
and friends care would mean an additional cost of £800 million
to the taxpayer.
5. Evidence from a survey of over 250
family and friends carers conducted this summer[198]
indicates that a high proportion (48%) are raising at least one
child with a disability or special needs and 59% of carers have
a long term health condition or disability themselves. Many of
the children they are looking after have experienced similar multiple
adversities in their birth families to those in the care system.
6. The survey also found that 28% of
family and friends carers gave up work when they took on the care
of a child, and a further 29% reduced their hours. 88% of carers
are under the age of 65. Many family and friends carers tell us
that social workers advised them to give up work to avoid their
grandchild being taken into care, and yet only a minority, around
one third, receive a discretionary allowance from their local
authority.
7. Whilst 48% of family and friends
carers cite their own or their partners job as their main source
of income, and a further 34% cite either the state pension or
an occupational or private pension as a main source of income,
20% of the sample are of working age and not working due to their
caring commitments or own health condition,( and do not have partner
who is either in work or in receipt of a pension). This corresponds
to around 40,000 individuals.
8. At present only a small minority
of grandparents and other family and friends carers (we estimate
around 4%, or 8,000 in the UK) are affected by conditionality
requirements. The majority of grandparent receiving income replacement
benefits are presently exempted because they are looking after
a child under the age of 7, or because they are receiving Incapacity
Benefit, or because they are aged over 60.
9. One of the consequences of the changes
being introduced as a result of the Comprehensive Spending Review
and other welfare reform measures is that in future many more
family and friends carers will be affected by conditionality requirements.
Furthermore, the increase in the state retirement age for women
from 60 to 65 will mean increasing numbers of older grandparent
carers will in future be affected by conditionality.
10. The small number of family and friends
carers currently affected by conditionality requirements, and
their small number as a group in the population of Jobcentre Plus
clients, means they are currently invisible as group to policy
makers and frontline staff at Department for Work and Pensions
and JobCentre Plus. We would like to see guidance strengthened
so that staff are aware of the needs of this group.
THE UNIQUE
STATUS OF
FAMILY AND
FRIENDS CARERS
SHOULD BE
RECOGNISED WITHIN
UNIVERSAL CREDIT
11. We believe this group need to be
recognised as a distinctive group for benefit entitlements, to
ensure that their capacity to care for vulnerable children and
to save taxpayers the expense of keeping them in care is not compromised.
We therefore recommend that family and friends carers should be
treated in the same way as carers and foster carers within the
benefit system and exempted from conditionality requirements within
JSA and ESA, at least for the first year following a child coming
to live with them. For some carers, this would give them enough
time to manage the upheaval in their lives without having to attempt
to juggle work and care. Where a child has particularly challenging
needs carers may need conditionality requirements for a longer
period, for example where the child has severe emotional needs.
12. We urge the Committee to support
our request to the Department of Work and Pensions that family
and friends carers should be treated like other carers or foster
carers, where there is a risk that a child might otherwise be
in care.
OLDER GRANDPARENT
CARERS
13. Around 12% of grandparent carers
are over the age of 65. It will be important that this group are
not disadvantaged by the introduction of Universal Credit, and
that they receive adequate support for children they are raising.
14. A small number of older grandparent
carers wish to continue working beyond the age of 65. Indeed this
may help them to meet the unplanned costs of raising a child in
later life. It is important that this group are able to access
tailored support as would have been available to them under working
tax credit, so that for them, work continues to pay if this is
what they choose to do.
15. What will be the position of grandparent
carers where one has reached statutory retirement age whilst the
other is still of working age?
CARERS
16. We believe that the definition of
carers who are exempted from conditionality (page 24) should be
extended to those looking after a child who is not their own who
would otherwise be in the care system. On current estimates this
would benefit around an additional 8,000 adults. These numbers
are likely to rise over time as conditionality is extended to
groups previously exempted for example some people currently on
Incapacity Benefit and women aged between 60 and 65 who are not
in work.
MONEY FOR
CHILDREN PAID
TO THE
MAIN CARER
17. We are concerned that under Universal
Credit money for children should continue to be paid to the main
carer. There is evidence that where money is controlled by the
woman a higher proportion is spend on food and daily living costs.[199]
The Government should not assume that money is equally shared
within households.
HOUSING COSTS
18. Around 22% of family and friends
carers currently receive housing benefit, a higher proportion
than population averages, and so this group will be disproportionately
affected by the changes to housing benefit announced in the Comprehensive
Spending Review. Family and friends carers who take on the full-time
care of a child at short notice risk falling foul of the new tighter
rules around Local Housing Allowances (LHAs). For example, where
a carer is living in rented accommodation for a period and has
to reduce their hours or give up work as a consequence of the
child moving in, it will be important that carers are not forced
to move house. Being required to move house because benefit does
not cover the cost of rent is likely to discourage family and
friends carers from stepping forward and placing excessive strain
on existing carers, and increasing the number of children in care
as a result.
19. We are also concerned that the proposed
10% reduction in housing benefit after one year on JSA will disproportionately
impact grandparents and other family and friends carers who will
find it more difficult to get back into work after dropping out
of the labour market.
20. One in10 family and friends carers
are in households of five of more people, and so will be disproportionately
affected by the benefit cap and vulnerable to becoming homeless.
21. We therefore believe that within
the housing element of Universal Credit there is some flexibility
to reflect the additional housing costs and need for stability
for children brought up by family and friends carers.
CHILDCARE
22. We welcome the intention in the
White Paper (page 22) that help with childcare costs will be available
to those who work less than 16 hours a week. We are concerned
that the maximum support available for childcare has been reduced
from 80% to 70% and would not want to see any further reduction
of childcare support.
23. We also believe that the informal
childcare provided by grandparents so that parents can work should
be recognised through tax credits or childcare vouchers. Requiring
couples to work for 24 hours before they can qualify for tax credits
will lead to an increased use of informal childcare.
MAXIMUM AWARD
OF UNIVERSAL
CREDIT
24. Particularly where family and friends
also have their own children living at home, the cap on household
benefits (page 23) may for some families act as a disincentive
to provide care and is likely to lead to more children moving
into care. We believe the exemption from the cap should be extended
to family and friends carers where the children they are looking
after would be in the care system.
PERSONALISED CONDITIONALITY
(PG 27)
25. We welcome the Government's intention
that conditionality requirements should be reasonable for that
person, taking into account their particular capabilities and
circumstances.
26. For some family and friends carers,
full conditionality will be inappropriate, for example where a
child they are looking after is disabled or has severe emotional
problems, or in the first year following the child moving in,
or where family and friends carers having multiple caring responsibilities,
perhaps for a disabled partner as well as the child. Imposing
full conditionality on this group will lead to carers being unable
to cope and more children going into local authority care. Every
child in care costs the state an average of £40,000 a year,
and outcomes for children growing up in the care system are often
poor.
CONTRIBUTORY BENEFITS
27. We are concerned that making contributory
benefits (eg contributory ESA) available for a fixed period only
will penalise older people who have worked and paid their contributions
but then suffer declining health in later years. This will particularly
disadvantage family and friends carers, almost half of whom have
a long term health condition or disability, which may well be
linked to the stress related to family difficulties which led
to them taking on the care of a child., but whose prior employment
rates are the same as for other people of a similar age in the
population. Where a person approaching retirement age has to stop
working due to poor health, they are likely to experience significant
hurdles to re-entering the labour market. Removing entitlement
to contributions based ESA after a year will further impoverish
many older people.
CONCLUSION
28. We urge the Committee to raise with
the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions our concerns in relation
to the particular circumstances of family and friends carers,
and the importance of safeguarding this group from unintended
consequences of the introduction of Universal Credit and other
welfare reforms.
December 2010
198 Sarah Wellard and Ben Wheatley (2010) Family
and Friends Care What if we said no?, Grandparents Plus Back
199
Jan Pahl (1989) Money and Marriage. Back
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