the carer payment: a double- edged sword for young carers · young carers young primary carers •...
TRANSCRIPT
The Carer Payment: a double-
edged sword for young carers
Presenter: Freya Saich
Authors: Freya Saich and Timothy Broady, PhD.
The peak non-government organisation for people in New South Wales
(NSW) who provide informal care and support to a family member or friend
who has a disability, mental illness, drug or alcohol dependency, chronic
condition, terminal illness or who is frail.
Our vision is an Australia that values and supports all carers. Our goals are
to:
• Work with carers to improve their health, wellbeing, resilience and
financial security
• Have caring recognised as a shared responsibility of family, community
and government
About
Carers NSW
Vision
Definitions
A carer is anyone who provides care and support to a family member or
friend with a disability, mental illness, drug or alcohol dependency, chronic
condition, terminal illness or is frail. A primary carer is the person who
provides the most care to someone.
A young carer is anyone who has a caring role and is under the age of 25,
including children and teenagers.
The Carer Payment provides financial support to people who are unable
to work in substantial paid employment because they personally provide
constant care in the home to someone.
Young carers aged 16 and above may be eligible for the Carer Payment.
Context
Car
er P
aym
ent
Fortnightly payment $877.10
Means tested.
‘25-hour rule’ restricting employment and education. C
arer
Allo
wan
ceFortnightly payment of $123.50
Not means tested.
Unrestricted hours of employment or education.
Car
er S
up
ple
men
t
Annual lump sum of $600
Available to all recipients of Carer Payment and/or Carer Allowance.
Income Support Payments Available to Carers
Context
• There are various limitations built into the Carer Payment which can
impact young carers’ engagement in employment and education.
• Limited employment and educational opportunities may prevent some
young carers from transitioning from income support once their caring
role ends.
• There has recently been significant government and media scrutiny of
young carers receiving income support and the cost of their potential
long-term dependence on welfare.
Issues
Context
• There are over 270,000 young carers in Australia.
• This is an underestimate as many young carers are ‘hidden’, i.e. don’t
identify as a carer, or are not recognised as such.
Young Carers
Young Primary Carers
• There are over 20,000 young primary carers in Australia (15-24 only).
• Young primary carers predominantly care for a parent, but sometimes
their own child or partner.
• Approximately 40% of young primary carers provide over 20 hours of
care each week.
Demographics
Australian Bureau of Statistics (2016)
Demographics
33% live outside of
major cities
YOUNG CARERS
More likely to live in
lone parent households
61% care for their parent
50% are women
More likely to be
Aboriginal or Torres Strait
IslanderMore likely to be of a
CALD background
Australian Bureau of Statistics (2016)
Cass et al. (2011)
Young carers experience significant socioeconomic disadvantage. 52% live
in low income households, compared to only 33.5% of all carers.
Socio-economic status
27%
25%26%
15%
7%
Weekly equivalised household income quintile of young carers
1st Quintile 2nd Quintile 3rd Quintile
4th Quintile 5th Quintile
Australian Bureau of Statistics (2016)
• Higher rates of absenteeism, difficulties completing homework.*
• Less likely to finish year 12 and have a post-secondary education.*
Educational Attainment
Workforce Participation• Lower workforce participation.**
• More likely be out of the labour force – combination of lower educational
attainment and ongoing caring responsibilities.
• Require support to participate in education and employment, and flexibility
to balance work/study and care.
Economic participation
*Hill et al. (2011)
**Cass et al. (2011); Bray (2012)
In 2016, 9,600 people aged 16 to 24 were receiving Carer Payment. This
comprises only 4% of all Carer Payment recipients. Most are 45 and over.
4%10%
18%
24%
29%
15%
Carer Payment by Age Group
16-24 25-34 35-44 45-54 55-64 65+
Young carers on Carer Payment
Department of Social Services (2016)
Carer Payment Age Pension
Payment Rate $877.10 fortnight $877.10 fortnight
Means testing Yes Yes
Eligible for Carer Allowance
Yes Yes
Restrictions on study, work, volunteering
Yes* No
A Carer Payment recipient cannot work, study or volunteer for more than
25 hours a week without their payment being reduced. This includes
travel time.
*The ‘25 hour rule’
Payment characteristics
Case study
Chantelle is a young carer of her mother with kidney disease. Chantelle was accepted to study Medicine at university. However, because her course required her to study more than 25 hours a week, Centrelink informed her that she would lose her Carer Payment. Instead, Chantelle transferred to study a Psychology degree part-time in order to meet the 25 hour rule.
Paraphrased case study. Source: Access Economics (2010).
• 21.6% people have been receiving the Carer Payment for 5 to 10 years
and an additional 10.3% of people have been receiving the Carer
Payment for 10 years or more.*
• On average people receive the Carer Payment for approximately 5
years.*
• 60% of carers are expected to receive Carer Payment after 5 years**
Duration on Income Support
* Department of Social Services (2014)
** PwC (2016)
“Of about 9,000 carers who had recently entered and were 15 to 24 in
2010/11, around 80% were either still carers or had transitioned to another
form of income support by 2015”.*
“82.6 per cent of those aged 20-24, when they started on Carer Payment,
received income support sometime after they exited Carer Payment...”
While 80% of young carers received some form of payment within six months
of the caring role ceasing, after four years this had declined to 40%.***
Carers with earnings whilst receiving Carer Payment are less likely to
require income support after the caring role ends.**
Former carers
* PwC (2016) p.114
** Department of Social Services (2015) p.90
*** Bray (2012)
Implications
Long term welfare dependency due to constrained employment participation and educational attainment at a critical time in a young carer’s life.
Significant socio-
economic disadvantage
Receiving CP long term
Weekly limitations to work, study, volunteering
• Age limit of Carer Payment increased to 22.*
o However, young carers will only continue to care with limited
financial means to do so.
• Adequate renumeration for the care young primary carers provide [an
estimated $750 million a year of replacement care].**
• Removal of 25 hour rule.
• Greater coordinated, flexible support to assist them to engage in work,
study, training or volunteering.
Possible solutions
* Department of Social Services (2015)
** Carers NSW calculations based on valuations produced by Deloitte Access Economics (2015)
Access Economics (2010) The economic value of informal care in 2010, Report for Carers Australia.
Australian Bureau of Statistics (2016) Disability, Ageing and Carers, Australia: Summary of findings, 2015, Carer tables,
Canberra.
Bray, R. (2012), Young carers in receipt of Carer Payment and Carer Allowance 2001 to 2006:
characteristics, experiences and post-care outcomes, Occasional Paper No. 47, Social Policy Evaluation, Analysis and
Research Centre, Australian National University.
Cass, B., Brennan, D., Thomson, C., Hill, T., Purcal, C., Hamilton, M., and Adamson, E. (2011), Young carers: Social policy
impacts of the caring responsibilities of children and young adults, Report prepared for ARC Linkage Partners
Deloitte Access Economics (2015), The economic value of informal care in Australia in 2015, Carers Australia, Canberra.
Department of Social Services (2014), Income support customers: a statistical overview 2013, Statistical Paper No. 11,
Australian Government.
Department of Social Services (2015), A New System for Better Employment and Social Outcomes - Interim Report of the
Reference Group on Welfare Reform to the Minister for Social Services, Commonwealth of Australia.
Department of Social Services (2016), DSS Demographics March 2016, Australian Government, available online at:
https://www.data.gov.au/dataset/dss-payment-demographic-data/resource/51f47c53-db92-46b2-8e9d-77b046814cce,
viewed 21 October 2016.
Department of Human Services, (2016), Carer Payment, Australian Government, available from;
https://www.humanservices.gov.au/customer/services/centrelink/carer-payment, viewed 19 October 2016.
Hill, T., Thomson, C. and Cass, B. (2011), ‘Young Carers: Location, Education and Employment Disadvantage’, Australian
Journal of Labour Economics, vol. 14, issue 2, pp. 173-198.
PricewaterhouseCoopers (2016), Valuation Report 30 June 2015 Baseline Valuation, Department of Social Services.
References
www.carersnsw.org.au
Freya Saich | Policy and Development Officer
Timothy Broady | Senior Research and Development Officer
[email protected] | [email protected]
(02) 9280 4744