Family Carers

• About
• Directory
• Events
• News
• Resources

Policy

Family Carers
Version 3.04 Published 26/08/2025 Web Page https://eng.dunz.org.nz/campaigns/employment/family-carers/

Status

This is a working draft. The workshop is yet to happen.

Definition

The

Problem

The

Solution

• Family members who care for adults with disabilities should be paid as employees of the Ministry of Health. They are doing essential work.
• Pay family members who care for adults with disabilities as employees of the state on union rates (eg, ACC, Work & Income, Min of Health).
• PSA is paying for a legal challenge to the Court to support the Humpfries.
• Carers NZ covers paid and unpaid carers.
• Respite needed.
• Support the We Care petition (deadline Nov 2025)

Proposed KPI

• Total

Context

• Employment
  • Family Carers
  • Minimum Wage Exemption
  • Right to Work
  • Support Workers

Discussion

"Before 2013 it was the Crown’s policy not to fund the care of disabled adults by family members. In 2013, Funded Family Care (FFC) was introduced, requiring the disabled person to employ a family carer - even if they lacked the mental capacity to be an employer. In 2020, FFC was replaced by Individualised Funding (IF), a fortnightly allowance that allowed a disabled person - or their appointed agent - to employ their own carers.

...

Fleming and another parent Peter Humphreys argued their children lacked the capacity to enter such an employment agreement and they were instead homeworkers - a person who is by law ‘engaged, employed or contracted” by another person to do work for them in a dwelling. They argued as homeworkers they were therefore employees of the Ministry of Health. The Employment Court agreed that Fleming and Humphreys were both homeworkers and therefore employees of the ministry and made declarations to that effect." - Catherine Hutton, The NZ Herald

PSA is funding the court case.