CARERS ALLOWANCE

Currently, somebody who is a registered carer receives £67.60 per week.
As soon as that person becomes eligible to draw a state pension, their entitlement to receive carers allowance ceases, even though 35+ hours of care will continue to be provided.
There is no difference between being a registered carer and working, for example, in a supermarket. Both are jobs of work for which people get paid.
In the letter DWP send to people applying to claim state pension it states "you can get your state pension while you are working and it will not affect the amount you receive. However, it could change the amount of tax you pay."
It is therefore clearly wrong that somebody can work e.g in a supermarket AND draw a state pension but you cannot be paid as a registered carer and draw a state pension.
A state pension is something that people have a right to receive provided that NI contributions have been paid for the required number of years.
If somebody relinquishes their role as a carer and found alternative employment, the job of providing 35+ hours of care per week would presumably revert to the State, which would be far more costly.
Everybody knows that the work that thousands of carers perform is massive and there is a need to show them some respect and not withdraw the very modest sum they currently receive just because some become eligible to draw a state pension.