This morning I was wondering why I reacted so strongly to the news that MPs will get their 9% pay rise, I suspected it was something to do with inequality of people’s value in society, so I had a closer look at the figures. The last Carers Allowance rise was 2.3%. Now this in today’s climate of austerity might sound quite good (even if it is far less than MPs) but if you consider that percentages are relative to the overall amount, the recent rise was £1.60 a week. Yearly that is £83.20 (no holidays) The MPs rise will be £6030. Yearly carers allowance is £3190.20, but curiously it counts as a taxable benefit. MPs currently earn £67,000 - which will now increase to £73,000 Now you can argue that MPs work very hard for their money (and I’m sure that a lot of them do), but for this particular exercise I decided to work out my hours caring. Looking at hourly pay, as a carer, looking after our children for every hour of the day and night, I have worked out that I care for Greta 84 hours a week. Although this doesn’t include work I do talking to people involved with Gretas, research for her learning / education and equipment, applying for grants for equipment (because everything costs a lot more, and only a fraction is funded) - but MPs may argue that they also spend out of hours time researching and communicating with people. So 84 hours a week (because Greta goes to school, very luckily has regular respite, and has a music lesson once a week; we are still trying to get her involved in after school clubs, but its a not easy) is 4368 hours a year. You may say that a lot of those hours are nightime, but I would answer that I can’t remember the last time I slept through the night, without waking to check that Greta is OK, on the few nights that Greta sleeps through. On all the other nights we are up between one and four times with her, to change her position, help her with a cough, sing to her til she gets back to sleep. Research showed that MPs work an average of 2,000 hours a year. The fact that you can only earn £102 a week whilst claiming carers allowance, both denies the extra cost of caring for a child with disabilities, but also ignores that because of these extra costs, many of us work very very hard when we can. The flip side is that many of us cannot work as well as being carers because the flexibility we need is not available. To sum up carers ‘earn’ £0.73 an hour, compared to £36 earned by MPs (I am not even going to think about hourly rates for top footballers and bankers). Of course there is then the small matter of MPs expenses (average £40,000 a year?) but I would need more time and a better statician to work through that. Really my point is about our pay, not theirs, but I was provoked to thinking about it by the casual 9% pay rise they have been ‘awarded’. Carers allowance expenses (childcare and 50% pension contributions, but no office staff to organise our children’s lives, meals out or travel) can be deducted from our weekly earnings to meet the £102 weekly earnings limit. But thats not the same as claiming, and being paid expenses. My point is that this demonstrates how a society values its people: if carers are valued at 2% of MPs, how should that make us feel about our (essential and love filled) work? And just to be clear, I wouldn’t change a minute of it, as its the most rewarding work I’ve ever done.
Posted on: Sun, 07 Sep 2014 11:56:29 +0000
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