An absence of care for the carers

Earlier this month, the government announced it would review carer’s allowance after a scandal that saw thousands penalised if they earned even a penny over the £151 per week earning threshold. People were forced to repay hundreds or thousands of pounds. Christmas bonuses, an unexpected pay rise or a few extra hours worked in a month can be all it takes to derail this fragile benefit.

But there’s another problem with carer’s allowance. The rhetoric has been deafening loud from Labour over the past few weeks - the NHS requires an urgent overhaul. Right beneath our noses, however, the caring community works silently and tirelessly saving the NHS a whopping £162 billion per year. The ‘Unsung heroes’, as Starmer puts it, are paid an astonishing and grotesque equivalent to just 90p per hour. This is calculated taking into account the long 12 hour waking shifts this job often entails, not to mention the high emotional toll and lack of social interaction many face. 

The fixed rate of pay doesn’t vary based on how many people you care for, so often parents with one or more SEN children and an elderly relative must make this miniscule amount stretch far beyond its means. This begs the question, why on earth aren’t the Government paying parent carers at least the minimum wage? The Carers Trust has documented over one third of carers are lonely and depressed; exasperated by a trap of poverty which keeps them in a cruel and merciless cycle. If a carer should choose to better their mental health and find employment, (which many report as being crucial to mental wellbeing) the current system means they must not.

We need to do better at taking care of our carers, and that starts by paying them fairly and recognising the vital role they play in keeping our country moving.