Cares Allowance Means Test Interrogations

They are animals!

Similar experience here my wife who had to give up work to care for our profoundly disabled son has been selected for the same treatment!

I have been completely transparent with all information sent them all the correct documentation and evidence requested.

Going by the rules we are well inside the means to continue to receive the "support"

Yet they keep picking apart things like I once lodged a cheque I received in work and asked me to explain it! it was for 147 euro!

I made a payment through revolut to a work pal in relation to a social event so they requested a revolut statement even though I dont have a functioning revolut ac!

The review is still not finished its been going for 2 months or more!

The fact is we as a family a far more worse off financialy having to have one parent as a full time carer who is essentialy doing the full time work of a nurse and some!

I know it's a pain but it's literally to make sure you aren't getting income from other sources and are over the threshold that's all.

Just type or hand right a letter explaining the transaction(s)

I remember being on the dole years ago and getting a letter to explain my own bank lodgements. Having to explain that the €200 odd I was lodging to my bank account was the same 200 I had to collect from the post office up the street as they wouldn't allow it to my account.

It's just some clerical officer making sure they have their paperwork right. It's stupid I know

You are missing the point. If you want to put MIL in state care nobody will say oh this will cost more. The state won't care and they won't lose any sleep over the cost.

They are interested however in undeclared income so it doesn't matter what you think you are saving the state.

I think the unredacted statements were requested to ensure you weren't artificially lowering the balance on the account with cash withdrawals or stashing in a revolut account etc. Doesn't make it any less annoying i'm sure but there has to be some sort of validation in place.

I'm just as frustrated but my frustration is aimed at how little the payment is. I can understand the job seekers rate as this is a temporary payment but carer allowance can be very long term and the rate is insulting.

OP, DSP don't care what you spend your money on. That is not the purpose of asking to see bank statements.

The purpose is to determine that you have no other undeclared source of income.

I can tell you now, unless you comply, they will stop your wife's allowance.

The ball is in your court.

Carers are supporting the state!

But can you not see that that is not practical? If there's no means-test then there will be less money for you and others who truly need it, as the same amount will have to be spread to those who don't actually need it.

Also, if there is no means-test simply because you don't want to comply with their rules, then wouldn't it also be fair for me to remove other requirements I didn't like? I work and also spend a lot of time caring for my elderly parents, why don't I get the same amount as a full-time carer, why would we keep that rule but not the one you don't like.

Silly, no?

Being a full time carer is a bloody job and a full time job at that it's a disgrace that you are means tested to get paid for it!

Lets deal with the here and now.

Currently the payment is means tested, and unfortunately, the applicant doesn't get to decide what is relevant to the means test / review or what the qualifying criteria is. DSP do.

And again, they don't care what you spend in Tesco, or on Amazon. It's lodgements they look at.

Currently, your choices here are either cooperate and give them what they need to process your application (or review) or lose the allowance. It's really that simple.

No amount of arguing back and forth or railing against DSP's processes will change that.

Best of luck.

Look, you're cutting our own nose of to spite your own face.

DSP are not going to conduct the review on YOUR terms. It is on their terms.

Until you give them what they are requesting, (an unredacted statement) the will not complete the review. There is nothing personal in it, it is the same for everyone.

Again, the ball is in your court.

Have a nice evening.

What is your plan then? Are you going to abandon your principles and send them a bank statement without the text tippexed out?

100% correct.

The patients being cared for are in most cases Irish born and bred people who have worked hard and paid taxes all thier lives, the people doing the job of caring for them are the most unselfish, kind and humble members of society. I personally know more than a few of them and I don't know how they cope with the stress.

Childrens allowance is not means tested, why in the name of God is the Carer's allowance means tested? It's a mickey mouse payment for a hugely responsible job that has no finishing time, it is literally a 24 hours a day 7 days a week job.

The absolute cheek of whoever thought it was a reasonable idea to conduct "reviews" after the carers have already passed a means test is astounding. They should be rewarding people who have been carers over a certain length of time not interogatting them.

How is it their or anyone elses business what any citizen spends their hard earned after tax money on? That's an invasion of privacy and should be brought to the attention of every politician in the country with the simple message to change it and change it quick.

The pen pusher that brought that policy in should get a high speed slap of a dirty adults nappy into the face, repeatedly.

I know this thread isn't about homecare or the health service generally but I think it is still on topic. The situation with homecare and community care is a national scandal. As things are so bad, people are forced to take matters into their own hands i.e. give up work to care for relatives and become an unpaid amateur carer, nurse, GP, physio, OT, SLT etc. Then they get interrogated by the DSP over their carer's allowance of ~13k per year or in my case, the carer's support grant of 1850 per year.

Respite "care" is a disaster, people I know waited for ages and finally got respite in nursing homes a long distance from home. They came out after two weeks a stone lighter, dehydrated, depressed and with much poorer mobility than when they went in. Now it will take their carers weeks or months to build them back up again if it's even possible.

People also wait and wait and wait for homecare packages thinking that they will solve their problems to some extent. We have a homecare package (outsourced by the HSE to for profit private companies)and it costs the taxpayer a few hundred a week for a very limited, shambolic, unreliable service with often DANGEROUS "care" given by barely trained staff who can barely speak English. There are also many other problems such as rushing and timecard fraud to data protection (namedropping other clients and discussing their medical conditions which happens constantly)

I've made several complaints to both the provider and the HSE and have been fobbed off or ignored. I contacted Your Service Your Say and HSE safeguarding, both individuals I dealt with agreed that the situation was completely unacceptable, they contacted the people responsible and received "assurance" that they would improve - but given that this hasn't happened, seems like this was another foboff.

But nevermind all that - the important thing is that I prove my status as a carer by attending for interrogation at the DSP's offices (taking me away from my caring duties) for a miserable payment of 1850 per year.