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The Carer Payment: a double- edged sword for young carers Presenter: Freya Saich Authors: Freya Saich and Timothy Broady, PhD.

The Carer Payment: a double- edged sword for young carers · Young Carers Young Primary Carers • There are over 20,000 young primary carers in Australia (15-24 only). • Young

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Page 1: The Carer Payment: a double- edged sword for young carers · Young Carers Young Primary Carers • There are over 20,000 young primary carers in Australia (15-24 only). • Young

The Carer Payment: a double-

edged sword for young carers

Presenter: Freya Saich

Authors: Freya Saich and Timothy Broady, PhD.

Page 2: The Carer Payment: a double- edged sword for young carers · Young Carers Young Primary Carers • There are over 20,000 young primary carers in Australia (15-24 only). • Young

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

Page 3: The Carer Payment: a double- edged sword for young carers · Young Carers Young Primary Carers • There are over 20,000 young primary carers in Australia (15-24 only). • Young

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

Page 4: The Carer Payment: a double- edged sword for young carers · Young Carers Young Primary Carers • There are over 20,000 young primary carers in Australia (15-24 only). • Young

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

Page 5: The Carer Payment: a double- edged sword for young carers · Young Carers Young Primary Carers • There are over 20,000 young primary carers in Australia (15-24 only). • Young

• 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

Page 6: The Carer Payment: a double- edged sword for young carers · Young Carers Young Primary Carers • There are over 20,000 young primary carers in Australia (15-24 only). • Young

• 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)

Page 7: The Carer Payment: a double- edged sword for young carers · Young Carers Young Primary Carers • There are over 20,000 young primary carers in Australia (15-24 only). • Young

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)

Page 8: The Carer Payment: a double- edged sword for young carers · Young Carers Young Primary Carers • There are over 20,000 young primary carers in Australia (15-24 only). • Young

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)

Page 9: The Carer Payment: a double- edged sword for young carers · Young Carers Young Primary Carers • There are over 20,000 young primary carers in Australia (15-24 only). • Young

• 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)

Page 10: The Carer Payment: a double- edged sword for young carers · Young Carers Young Primary Carers • There are over 20,000 young primary carers in Australia (15-24 only). • Young

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)

Page 11: The Carer Payment: a double- edged sword for young carers · Young Carers Young Primary Carers • There are over 20,000 young primary carers in Australia (15-24 only). • Young

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

Page 12: The Carer Payment: a double- edged sword for young carers · Young Carers Young Primary Carers • There are over 20,000 young primary carers in Australia (15-24 only). • Young

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).

Page 13: The Carer Payment: a double- edged sword for young carers · Young Carers Young Primary Carers • There are over 20,000 young primary carers in Australia (15-24 only). • Young

• 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)

Page 14: The Carer Payment: a double- edged sword for young carers · Young Carers Young Primary Carers • There are over 20,000 young primary carers in Australia (15-24 only). • Young

“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)

Page 15: The Carer Payment: a double- edged sword for young carers · Young Carers Young Primary Carers • There are over 20,000 young primary carers in Australia (15-24 only). • Young

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

Page 16: The Carer Payment: a double- edged sword for young carers · Young Carers Young Primary Carers • There are over 20,000 young primary carers in Australia (15-24 only). • Young

• 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)

Page 17: The Carer Payment: a double- edged sword for young carers · Young Carers Young Primary Carers • There are over 20,000 young primary carers in Australia (15-24 only). • Young

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

Page 18: The Carer Payment: a double- edged sword for young carers · Young Carers Young Primary Carers • There are over 20,000 young primary carers in Australia (15-24 only). • Young

www.carersnsw.org.au

Freya Saich | Policy and Development Officer

Timothy Broady | Senior Research and Development Officer

[email protected] | [email protected]

(02) 9280 4744