Carer Any advice

Silke007

I would be very grateful If anyone here could help me out on my three specific questions. I have spent the last fortnight on Internet trying to find the answer to these issues but I am just going around in circles.

Both my parents are in their 80s and not well. I am looking into becoming a carer for them. But there are 3 areas I cannot find answers to . Firstly I am unemployed and it says carers is taxable. If you have worked 2 years before you take on carer's you can get stamps. If you have not worked in previous 2 years you cannot get stamps/prsi/pension etc. So what I would like to know you have no stamps from previous 2 years before you took on carer's, If you work for 1 year or 6 months or 2 years for a period as carer, say over 1 year would you be than entitled to get stamps/prsi contributions pension etc on carer's than. Let say you have no stamps at the start of carer's, after say 1 year working as carer will you get stamps/ contributions to your pension etc. I hope that makes sense I am really bad at explaining stuff like that.

Secondly I have some medical health issues I am on medical card. It says you get gp card when you are on carer's. If I became a carer would they take medical card of me and replace it with gp card. And it says you can keep medical card for 3 years after going back to work. So would I be allowed to keep medical card on carer's for 3 years or would they take the medical card of me after 1 or 2 years on carer's.

Any advice or information I would be so grateful. I have spent the last 2 weeks looking on Internet for any info and I cannot answers to my specific questions. If I could just get some answers information I can then start to make future plans. It's kind of stressing me out I cannot find any answers to my specific questions. As I said If I find the information I can than makes plans for myself and my parents.

Any information I would really appreciate it.

looksee

If anyone has definite information on any of the above I hope they will share it. I only have opinions and assumtions - for example if you have a medical card now it will not be over-ridden by your Carer status. That's just my opinion though. Have you contacted Citizens Advice? You can make an appointment to go in and get some definite information.