carersvoices.org

wildthing · Site Admin Joined: 29 Feb 2008 Posts: 543

Will the Minister consider simplifying the double benefit rules, especially regarding carer's allowance and the state retirement pension? Will my right hon. Friend be willing to examine that rule, which is of long-standing concern to pensioners? I am sure that the designers of the welfare state in the 1940s could not have expected so many pensioners to be carers for other pensioners—whether spouses or elderly parents. It is a shock to the system to find that, when they receive state retirement pension, their carer's allowance stops.

Stephen Timms (Minister of State (Employment and Welfare Reform), Department for Work and Pensions; East Ham, Labour)

My hon. Friend is right to make the point that people are often concerned when they get into that position and discover that that is the rule. He will know, however, that it is a long-established principle of the benefits system that we do not pay two benefits in those circumstances.

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