We must do more to help carers out of poverty

Jean Lambert, the Green MEP for London, has called on the UK Government to do more to help the thousands of carers living in poverty and the many more who are at risk at sliding into financial hardship and social exclusion

Jean, who opened a meeting of the European Parliament Interest Group on Carers today [2], heard how despite more and more being expected of carers due to demographic changes and challenges to formal health and social care services throughout Europe support is fundamentally lacking.

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Can Britain afford to ignore carers?

A recent survey by the Princess Royal Trust For Carers show we as a society can no longer ignore the unpaid carers who provide most of the care to the elderly, the sick and the disabled in Britain.

Do you think it is the NHS or social services that provide the largest amount of care to sick and disabled people throughout the country?

Read full article here

Alan Wheatley, Green Party of England & Wales Spokesperson on Disability and Social Care Services

Carer Watch have permission to share an email we received from Alan.

Brighton Benefits Campaign   Public Meeting warms to Carers’ Issues

Pip Tindall of Brighton Benefits Campaign  wrote me on Friday 24 September:  

“Thank you so much for coming all that way to join us, and for contributing so much to the meeting, especially on the subject of unpaid carers who are the forgotten people in all this. I hope the journey back wasn’t too arduous.  “We thought the meeting went quite well, & it was great that there were many people who were there as claimants not activists….”

In my Green Party of England & Wales Spokesperson on Disability and Social Care Services guise — with a bit of the ESA claimant thrown in — I attended a Brighton Benefits Campaign [BBC] public meeting on Thursday 23 September and spoke from the floor outlining carers’ issues.

The platform speakers included Caroline Lucas MP and a local UNISON speaker, along with Pip Tindall of the BBC. I outlined the issues re exploitation of carers —

Campaign to protect Disability Benefits

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Carer Watch response to 21st Century Welfare reform

Families’ fears over disability benefit reform

Carers UK   has expressed deep concerns that the Government’s proposed reductions to the Disability Living Allowance budget could have a ‘devastating impact’ on family incomes.

In the Emergency Budget in June, the Chancellor set out plans to reduce the budget for Disability Living Allowance by 20%, around £1 billion.  Carer’s Allowance, the main benefit for people who care unpaid for ill or disabled loved-ones, can only be claimed if someone is caring for a friend or relative who is in receipt of the middle or higher rate ‘care component’ of Disability Living Allowance, or Attendance Allowance. The £1 billion reduction is expected to come from existing claimants having their benefit reduced or removed following a new medical test for all existing and new claimants of Disability Living Allowance by 2013/14.

Read in full here

Carers once again ignored

Once again the government has ignored the problems faced by many family carers. In the recent consultation about the Refresh of the Carers Strategy, discussing carer finances was ruled OUT as …

 “The Government recognises that the issue of carers’ benefits is important and will consider this area separately under plans to simplify and modernise the benefit system.” 

Yet now we have a 21st Century Welfare Reform  paper and once again no discussion about carers benefits, no concrete details given as to the Coalition governments intentions regarding Carers Allowance.

Unlike nurses/policeman/firefighters, carers are unable to go on strike, yet the service they provide is just as important. They are a necessity to this country and keep both NHS and Social Services afloat.

How can carers bring pressure on the government to obtain some answers as to their future?

Should carers continue to hope for the government to address these issues when it is the very same government that causes the problems in the first place?

Carers need real action from the government to improve their lives.

They need immediate answers regarding carers benefits, not meaningless consultations.

Social care recipients to control their personal budgets

Government to announce expansion of scheme from November, giving patients total autonomy over payments

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Dementia: the carer’s tale

While I lived with my mother-in-law I was at her beck and call 24 hours a day. The first inkling that life as a carer might not be as rose-tinted as the cottage in which I was living came when I brought her breakfast in bed on the first morning. Not only did she have no idea who I was, she treated me as if I were a servant

Full story in the Telegraph

VULNERABLE OLDER PEOPLE WILL BEAR BRUNT OF COUNCIL CUTS: SURVEY

A national care charity is warning that council budget cuts are disproportionately hitting older people and their carers.

Counsel and Care has published the results of a national survey which it said showed how councils’ care budgets were under extreme financial pressure.

Over half of the councils surveyed confirmed that they would be cutting social care budgets or reducing the range of services available.

read in full here

Cuts to Welfare

The government is consulting on its plans for Welfare Reform in a consultation called 21st Century Welfare

These are the questions

1. What steps should the Government consider to reduce the cost of the welfare system and reduce welfare dependency and poverty?

2. Which aspects of the current benefits and Tax Credits system in particular lead to the widely held view that work does not pay for benefit recipients?