Dear Prime Minister
In the UK, Unpaid Carers have been crying out for support, respite and better protections for their futures, which we could have had all along.
Only a select handful of English councils do not have an agreement with Shared Lives; a network of Carers across the country, who are trained, matched and background checked by the local authority, to provide care if there is no family member who can provide support.
These people are complete strangers to our loved ones, they do not know the person, the background, routines, likes / dislikes and so much more, but yet our local councils most likely have a commissioned service to provide care at a level of understanding less than that of a family member, but paid twice as much.
That’s right, a council will pay double the amount of Carers Allowance to a complete stranger to look after your family member if you can’t, and the benefits of doing this, they get holiday, sick pay, maternity leave and everything else that Unpaid Carers do not get.
While Unpaid Carers suffer with no respite, no protections, an uncertain future and a loss of pension, someone else could have been doing it, and getting paid a decent living for it.
Roughly 1.8m pensioners are losing either their State Pension or Carers Allowance worth £86.45 per week, while complete strangers to your parents, partner, child or friend will still have access to their pensions when they retire.
With so many people getting older in the UK, the risk of dementia related diseases is on the increase, these carers don’t know our loved ones the way we do, we will know when something is not right and can do something about it, but the councils pay more to someone who wouldn’t know if our family member or friend was declining.
This isn’t outrageous, or disgusting, it is beyond words.
There are no words to cover the utter level of contempt our Government has for someone who is a “Family” caregiver. Are we not human? Do we not deserve to live safe normal lives without worrying about our finances and our futures?
The British Government should be ashamed of itself, is this truly what our forefathers fought for, a Government breaking millions of people, letting us collapse and then paying 7 times the price for emergency care?
Paying an Unpaid Carer is about Respect. Dignity. Pride.
The Respect for Unpaid Carers who work tirelessly and thanklessly to keep their loved ones safe.
Giving Unpaid Carers the Dignity to be able to afford to live, not suffer silently the endless worries of an uncertain future.
If the Government can’t have Pride in our Unpaid Carers, there is no dignity or respect.
Prime Minister - we urge you to immediately halt all ongoing legal action against unpaid carers, to seek to implement as many of the 38 agreed recommendations of the Sayce Review within the next 6 months and to acknowledge the National Unpaid Carers Union as a stakeholder in all future Carer related proceedings.
Signed by and on behalf of all Unpaid Carers across the UK.