Time to Recognise and Care for Unpaid Carers!
Time to Recognise and Care for Unpaid Carers!
The issue
CARERS RIGHTLY DESERVE: Respect! Recognition! Remuneration!
PREAMBLE:
“Over the decades no government has faced the reality of the personal sacrifices and price we pay as carers head on - the actual human cost – but they’re happy to have us quietly working away in the background for next to nothing, saving them billions of dollars in unpaid care whilst we suffer physically, mentally, emotionally and financially. Carers are an inconvenient truth to governments; among the most disadvantaged and vulnerable living way below the poverty line!”
Successive federal governments have spruiked that older Australians should be encouraged to live longer at home before moving into nursing homes; easier said than done when carers are not being duly recognised for their efforts and the burdens saddled upon them.
Sweatshops are illegal, slave labour is a crime, yet some carers receive as little as 46 cents an hour to look after an aged, infirm, disabled, or incapacitated person 24/7, 365 days a year!
We need to stop the exploitation of carers - now!
THIS PETITION:
We the undersigned Petitioners call on the HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES (the Prime Minister and the federal government) to justly and morally recognise and care for carers, especially those only in receipt of a Carer Allowance (CA) who need immediate, realistic and proper financial recognition for their unrequited efforts in underpinning Australia's aged care, health and disability sectors – saving the government and the Australian taxpayer between $77.9, to a staggering $126.2 billion dollars a year!
Primary carers need, and rightly deserve the same respect, recognition and comparable financial remuneration as paid support workers; they should be valued, not taken advantage of.
The current amount of Carer Allowance (CA) particularly is an insult to the intelligence and dignity of carers.
---------------------------------------------------------
WE PETITIONERS have Seven (7) matters to ask the HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES to address:
1. Without further excuse and delay, the federal government must commit to the immediate and mandatory implementation of the principles of the Statement for Australia’s Carers as set forth under the provisions of the Carer Recognition Act 2010 (No. 123, 2010) and legislate legally enforceable obligations and penalties for breaching them.
2. Increase the Carer Allowance (CA) to at least $532.00 per fortnight; this being fifty-percent (50%) of the March 2023 Carer Payment (CP)/Pension Rate of $1064.00. This should be payable in addition to any Centrelink Primary Income Support Payment.
3. Remove the income tests that apply to Carer Allowance (CA) and the Carer Payment (CP).
4. Pay the current Superannuation Guarantee (SG) contribution on behalf of the carer who should be able to access it (tax and income-test free) upon ceasing to be a primary carer.
5. Prohibit any fully or partially funded government aged care and/or disability service provider, grant recipient, or contractor from levying and/or charging gap fees or co-payments.
6. Facilitate a public education campaign to restore and reinforce the fundamental distinctions between paid support workers and carers.
7. Establish regional service hubs where information is acquired, distributed, disseminated and free-flowing directly between carers and the government.
----------------------------------------------------------
BACKGROUND:
For far too long there has been a blurred distinction between paid support workers and carers.
Paid support workers are usually engaged by a care support organisation, are formally trained, qualified and paid to look after clients on an employed basis with various statutory entitlements, benefits and rights.
Carers – often with years of lived experience - are persons who regularly look after the needs of an aged, infirm, disabled, or incapacitated person on a permanent or temporary basis usually in return for a government benefit.
Whereas those 306,985 Australians receiving Carer Payment (CP) (as at March 2024) get 60.95% of the national minimum wage of $1831.60 per fortnight (as set from 1 July 2024), those 646,720 in receipt of the Carer Allowance (CA) only get 8.38% for working four times more hours than a 38 hour a week paid support worker – 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and 365 days of the year.
The Australian Fair Work Commission announced on Monday 3 June 2024 the minimum wage will be lifted $0.87 an hour from its $23.23 base from 1 July 2024, an increase of 3.75 per cent, to $24.10 an hour; that’s $915.80 for a 38 hour week, $1831.60 a fortnight, or $47,621.60 a year!
Now we’re told "all employees working in Australia are entitled to a minimum wage. This is the minimum amount an employee can be paid for the work that they're doing;" but alas carers are not considered employees but Australian government benefit recipients.
Sure, paid support workers got an increase, but care givers got nothing.
Carer Payment (CP) was previously paid at the rate of $1096.70 per fortnight, $28,514.20 a year, $548.35 a week, $78.34 per day, or just $3.26 an hour.
From 20 March 2024 the rate negligibly increased by 1.79%, or $19.60 to $1116.30 per fortnight, $29,023.80 a year, $558.15 a week, $79.74 per day, or just $3.32 an hour!
Notwithstanding the average CPI rise was 3.6 percent over the twelve months to the March 2024 quarter.
The paltry Carer Allowance (CA) is currently paid at the rate of $153.50 per fortnight, or $3991.00 a year; that’s just $76.75 a week, $10.96 per day, or just 46 cents an hour – up from its previous high of 43 cents an hour!
The Carer Allowance (CA) of $3991.00 a year is not even enough to keep a car on the road!
This is reprehensible, inexcusable and an affront to carers and their families who are financially sodomised!
According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics Disability, Ageing and Carers, Australia: Summary of Findings (ABS, 2018) there are 2.65 million unpaid carers in Australia providing care and support to a family member or friend; 37.4% of carers themselves have a disability; there are 235,300 young carers aged under 25 and there are 533,400 carers in Queensland alone.
It is estimated that those caring for family members actually save the government - the Australian taxpayer, the community, you - more than $77.9 billion a year providing informal/primary care across Australia.
Now, crunching the numbers, if there are 2,650,000 unpaid carers in Australia saving the government a whopping 77,900,000,000 billion dollars, the reality is each carer is worth, at the least $29,396.23.
But when the latest minimum wage of $47,621.60 is factored into the equation, the actual savings to the government would be a staggering $126,197,240,000 billion dollars.
Item 4 of Schedule 1 (The Statement for Australia’s Carers) of the Carer Recognition Act 2010 (No. 123, 2010) states “the valuable social and economic contribution that carers make to society should be recognised and supported.”
Unpaid carers should be applauded, appreciated, appropriately financially recognised and respected for their selfless efforts, sacrifices and the noble contribution they make to the community.
Unpaid carers don't just play an integral part in Australia's aged care, health and disability sectors, they underpin them!
----------------------------------------------------------
THE ISSUES AND OUR GRIEVENCES:
1. Caring for a loved one isn't just a labour of love, it is a burden in countless ways that many could never appreciate or imagine, lest of all our out-of-touch politicians and bureaucrats who are living in an alternate reality.
2. Carers often have to give up fulltime work, they put their lives and careers on hold, they often become socially isolated, they are in poor physical health, they ignore their own social, personal, mental, emotional, spiritual and financial well-being and are not adequately supported by the government or service providers, let alone by members of their own family.
3. Carers not only forfeit potential lifetime earnings, but miss out on thousands of dollars in superannuation retirement savings.
4. Carers get no holiday leave entitlements or benefits.
5. Carers often dip into, and deplete their own financial reserves in supporting the person(s) they care for.
6. When their caring role is at an end, carers under retirement age, or ineligible for a primary income support benefit from Centrelink will often find themselves literally punished and thrown on the JobSeeker scrap-heap; a harsh reality for many older Australians!
7. Compared to the general populace, cost-of-living expenses incurred by carers in looking after an aged, infirm, disabled, or incapacitated person are much higher.
8. Contrary to what some might surmise, carers do not receive a secondary $1116.30 pension/benefit each fortnight to look after an aged, infirm, disabled, or incapacitated person 24/7, 365 days of the year.
There is no third income shared between two people; albeit some may qualify for the $153.50 fortnightly Carer Allowance (CA).
9. For many carers, and after their savings and super are eroded, thoughts of financial ruin, destitution and homelessness are very real!
10. Carers quite often succumb to carer burnout, or compassion fatigue.
The physical, emotional, financial, and other burdens on carers can become so great that long-standing and once cohesive family relationships often become strained, families fracture and disintegrate!
11. The increasing plight and suicide rates of distressed and desperate carers is continually ignored.
12. If you are wanting to look after someone in the home, you need to be prepared to give up work and sacrifice a generous income, benefits, superannuation, your career, your livelihood and your family relationships just to qualify for a paltry Carer Allowance (CA) because there is no third income stream – or wad of cash as some naively believe - shared between two people.
So after paying your combined mortgage/rent, car, loans, groceries, essential services, you have to miraculously find money to cover out of pocket care expenses, service charge gap fees, transport, medications, and the like.
----------------------------------------------------------
ABOUT THE PETITION AUTHOR:
I am the fulltime 24/7, 365 day a year primary carer of my ailing mother who has Lewy Body Dementia (LBD) and is in declining physical health with severe mobility issues, chronic health conditions and numerous ailments.
I receive a meagre $153.50 fortnightly Carer Allowance (CA).
With many health issues, including an extremely rare genetic disorder (Pallister-Hall Syndrome), a brain tumour, spinal tumour, mental health issues, almost profoundly deaf, together with a myriad of other medical problems I am on the Disability Support Pension (DSP).
Like many, every fortnight I find myself having to contribute more and more from my very limited savings, and I have to bite into my DSP for my mother's upkeep and special needs.
----------------------------------------------------------
HOW YOU CAN HELP?
Show the federal government just how much support there is for us exploited carers by adding your name - your voice - to this nationally significant Petition; after all, you never know when you might find yourself as a carer or a person relying on one.
Feel free to comment on your caring role and how it has affected your life, your family, your relationships?
PLEASE SIGN, SHARE, SPONSOR AND TAG THIS NATIONAL PETITION and send it to your family, friends and local media.
Together we can put more pressure on the government to do the right thing by carers who are being exploited by an unfair, unjust, and reprehensible benefit system.
Carers need your support now!
We all need to send a loud and clear message to Canberra that it is time to recognise and care for carers!
Carers, especially those only in receipt of a Carer Allowance (CA), need immediate, realistic and proper financial recognition.
Thank you for your support!
Feel free to send any comments directly to me.
25,773
The issue
CARERS RIGHTLY DESERVE: Respect! Recognition! Remuneration!
PREAMBLE:
“Over the decades no government has faced the reality of the personal sacrifices and price we pay as carers head on - the actual human cost – but they’re happy to have us quietly working away in the background for next to nothing, saving them billions of dollars in unpaid care whilst we suffer physically, mentally, emotionally and financially. Carers are an inconvenient truth to governments; among the most disadvantaged and vulnerable living way below the poverty line!”
Successive federal governments have spruiked that older Australians should be encouraged to live longer at home before moving into nursing homes; easier said than done when carers are not being duly recognised for their efforts and the burdens saddled upon them.
Sweatshops are illegal, slave labour is a crime, yet some carers receive as little as 46 cents an hour to look after an aged, infirm, disabled, or incapacitated person 24/7, 365 days a year!
We need to stop the exploitation of carers - now!
THIS PETITION:
We the undersigned Petitioners call on the HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES (the Prime Minister and the federal government) to justly and morally recognise and care for carers, especially those only in receipt of a Carer Allowance (CA) who need immediate, realistic and proper financial recognition for their unrequited efforts in underpinning Australia's aged care, health and disability sectors – saving the government and the Australian taxpayer between $77.9, to a staggering $126.2 billion dollars a year!
Primary carers need, and rightly deserve the same respect, recognition and comparable financial remuneration as paid support workers; they should be valued, not taken advantage of.
The current amount of Carer Allowance (CA) particularly is an insult to the intelligence and dignity of carers.
---------------------------------------------------------
WE PETITIONERS have Seven (7) matters to ask the HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES to address:
1. Without further excuse and delay, the federal government must commit to the immediate and mandatory implementation of the principles of the Statement for Australia’s Carers as set forth under the provisions of the Carer Recognition Act 2010 (No. 123, 2010) and legislate legally enforceable obligations and penalties for breaching them.
2. Increase the Carer Allowance (CA) to at least $532.00 per fortnight; this being fifty-percent (50%) of the March 2023 Carer Payment (CP)/Pension Rate of $1064.00. This should be payable in addition to any Centrelink Primary Income Support Payment.
3. Remove the income tests that apply to Carer Allowance (CA) and the Carer Payment (CP).
4. Pay the current Superannuation Guarantee (SG) contribution on behalf of the carer who should be able to access it (tax and income-test free) upon ceasing to be a primary carer.
5. Prohibit any fully or partially funded government aged care and/or disability service provider, grant recipient, or contractor from levying and/or charging gap fees or co-payments.
6. Facilitate a public education campaign to restore and reinforce the fundamental distinctions between paid support workers and carers.
7. Establish regional service hubs where information is acquired, distributed, disseminated and free-flowing directly between carers and the government.
----------------------------------------------------------
BACKGROUND:
For far too long there has been a blurred distinction between paid support workers and carers.
Paid support workers are usually engaged by a care support organisation, are formally trained, qualified and paid to look after clients on an employed basis with various statutory entitlements, benefits and rights.
Carers – often with years of lived experience - are persons who regularly look after the needs of an aged, infirm, disabled, or incapacitated person on a permanent or temporary basis usually in return for a government benefit.
Whereas those 306,985 Australians receiving Carer Payment (CP) (as at March 2024) get 60.95% of the national minimum wage of $1831.60 per fortnight (as set from 1 July 2024), those 646,720 in receipt of the Carer Allowance (CA) only get 8.38% for working four times more hours than a 38 hour a week paid support worker – 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and 365 days of the year.
The Australian Fair Work Commission announced on Monday 3 June 2024 the minimum wage will be lifted $0.87 an hour from its $23.23 base from 1 July 2024, an increase of 3.75 per cent, to $24.10 an hour; that’s $915.80 for a 38 hour week, $1831.60 a fortnight, or $47,621.60 a year!
Now we’re told "all employees working in Australia are entitled to a minimum wage. This is the minimum amount an employee can be paid for the work that they're doing;" but alas carers are not considered employees but Australian government benefit recipients.
Sure, paid support workers got an increase, but care givers got nothing.
Carer Payment (CP) was previously paid at the rate of $1096.70 per fortnight, $28,514.20 a year, $548.35 a week, $78.34 per day, or just $3.26 an hour.
From 20 March 2024 the rate negligibly increased by 1.79%, or $19.60 to $1116.30 per fortnight, $29,023.80 a year, $558.15 a week, $79.74 per day, or just $3.32 an hour!
Notwithstanding the average CPI rise was 3.6 percent over the twelve months to the March 2024 quarter.
The paltry Carer Allowance (CA) is currently paid at the rate of $153.50 per fortnight, or $3991.00 a year; that’s just $76.75 a week, $10.96 per day, or just 46 cents an hour – up from its previous high of 43 cents an hour!
The Carer Allowance (CA) of $3991.00 a year is not even enough to keep a car on the road!
This is reprehensible, inexcusable and an affront to carers and their families who are financially sodomised!
According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics Disability, Ageing and Carers, Australia: Summary of Findings (ABS, 2018) there are 2.65 million unpaid carers in Australia providing care and support to a family member or friend; 37.4% of carers themselves have a disability; there are 235,300 young carers aged under 25 and there are 533,400 carers in Queensland alone.
It is estimated that those caring for family members actually save the government - the Australian taxpayer, the community, you - more than $77.9 billion a year providing informal/primary care across Australia.
Now, crunching the numbers, if there are 2,650,000 unpaid carers in Australia saving the government a whopping 77,900,000,000 billion dollars, the reality is each carer is worth, at the least $29,396.23.
But when the latest minimum wage of $47,621.60 is factored into the equation, the actual savings to the government would be a staggering $126,197,240,000 billion dollars.
Item 4 of Schedule 1 (The Statement for Australia’s Carers) of the Carer Recognition Act 2010 (No. 123, 2010) states “the valuable social and economic contribution that carers make to society should be recognised and supported.”
Unpaid carers should be applauded, appreciated, appropriately financially recognised and respected for their selfless efforts, sacrifices and the noble contribution they make to the community.
Unpaid carers don't just play an integral part in Australia's aged care, health and disability sectors, they underpin them!
----------------------------------------------------------
THE ISSUES AND OUR GRIEVENCES:
1. Caring for a loved one isn't just a labour of love, it is a burden in countless ways that many could never appreciate or imagine, lest of all our out-of-touch politicians and bureaucrats who are living in an alternate reality.
2. Carers often have to give up fulltime work, they put their lives and careers on hold, they often become socially isolated, they are in poor physical health, they ignore their own social, personal, mental, emotional, spiritual and financial well-being and are not adequately supported by the government or service providers, let alone by members of their own family.
3. Carers not only forfeit potential lifetime earnings, but miss out on thousands of dollars in superannuation retirement savings.
4. Carers get no holiday leave entitlements or benefits.
5. Carers often dip into, and deplete their own financial reserves in supporting the person(s) they care for.
6. When their caring role is at an end, carers under retirement age, or ineligible for a primary income support benefit from Centrelink will often find themselves literally punished and thrown on the JobSeeker scrap-heap; a harsh reality for many older Australians!
7. Compared to the general populace, cost-of-living expenses incurred by carers in looking after an aged, infirm, disabled, or incapacitated person are much higher.
8. Contrary to what some might surmise, carers do not receive a secondary $1116.30 pension/benefit each fortnight to look after an aged, infirm, disabled, or incapacitated person 24/7, 365 days of the year.
There is no third income shared between two people; albeit some may qualify for the $153.50 fortnightly Carer Allowance (CA).
9. For many carers, and after their savings and super are eroded, thoughts of financial ruin, destitution and homelessness are very real!
10. Carers quite often succumb to carer burnout, or compassion fatigue.
The physical, emotional, financial, and other burdens on carers can become so great that long-standing and once cohesive family relationships often become strained, families fracture and disintegrate!
11. The increasing plight and suicide rates of distressed and desperate carers is continually ignored.
12. If you are wanting to look after someone in the home, you need to be prepared to give up work and sacrifice a generous income, benefits, superannuation, your career, your livelihood and your family relationships just to qualify for a paltry Carer Allowance (CA) because there is no third income stream – or wad of cash as some naively believe - shared between two people.
So after paying your combined mortgage/rent, car, loans, groceries, essential services, you have to miraculously find money to cover out of pocket care expenses, service charge gap fees, transport, medications, and the like.
----------------------------------------------------------
ABOUT THE PETITION AUTHOR:
I am the fulltime 24/7, 365 day a year primary carer of my ailing mother who has Lewy Body Dementia (LBD) and is in declining physical health with severe mobility issues, chronic health conditions and numerous ailments.
I receive a meagre $153.50 fortnightly Carer Allowance (CA).
With many health issues, including an extremely rare genetic disorder (Pallister-Hall Syndrome), a brain tumour, spinal tumour, mental health issues, almost profoundly deaf, together with a myriad of other medical problems I am on the Disability Support Pension (DSP).
Like many, every fortnight I find myself having to contribute more and more from my very limited savings, and I have to bite into my DSP for my mother's upkeep and special needs.
----------------------------------------------------------
HOW YOU CAN HELP?
Show the federal government just how much support there is for us exploited carers by adding your name - your voice - to this nationally significant Petition; after all, you never know when you might find yourself as a carer or a person relying on one.
Feel free to comment on your caring role and how it has affected your life, your family, your relationships?
PLEASE SIGN, SHARE, SPONSOR AND TAG THIS NATIONAL PETITION and send it to your family, friends and local media.
Together we can put more pressure on the government to do the right thing by carers who are being exploited by an unfair, unjust, and reprehensible benefit system.
Carers need your support now!
We all need to send a loud and clear message to Canberra that it is time to recognise and care for carers!
Carers, especially those only in receipt of a Carer Allowance (CA), need immediate, realistic and proper financial recognition.
Thank you for your support!
Feel free to send any comments directly to me.
25,773
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Petition created on 16 March 2022