Benefit changes welcomed by disability groups

Tuesday 20th September 2011, 2:29PM BST.

Wigwam Support Group adviser Jenny Hooper, left, and Guernsey Disability Alliance chairwoman Shelaine Green have welcomed Social Security plans to improve the grants system for carers. (Picture by Peter Frankland, 1180874)

LIFTING the earnings cap for people claiming a carer’s allowance would make their work seem less devalued, disability groups have said.

Social Security’s proposed changes to the attendance allowance, a £90-a-week benefit for the severely disabled, and invalid carers’ allowance, a £72.59 benefit for providing more than 35 hours of voluntary care per week, have been met with a positive response.

The adjustments, to be debated in the October States meeting, include improving and simplifying the attendance allowance’s application process, removing prescription charges for its claimants, and lifting an earnings cap of £117 a week for carers.

Jenny Hooper, 46, adviser and former chairwoman of Wigwam Support Group, which helps parents and carers with disabled children, said the latter was a positive change.