Tackling carer's poverty
Mike Hancock MP lends support to UK wide call to tackle carers' poverty.
MP for Portsmouth South, Mike Hancock today joined a nationwide campaign to mark Carers' Week (12-18 June 2000) to raise awareness of the financial hardship being faced by carers. This awareness campaign accompanies the publication of new research from Carer National AssocIation which reveals a picture of carers struggling to manage on low incomes. One in three carers in the study were or had been in debt. Nearly one third had trouble paying utility bills and 22 per cent of carers had to cut back on food. Many of the carers in the study were providing care for elderly, sick or disabled relatives 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Much more still needs to be done to tackle carers' poverty and to help carers to meet the costs of caring. The main carers' benefit, Invalid Care Allowance (ICA) is worth only £40.40p per week based on a minimum of 35 hours care. It is the lowest benefit of its kind and carers over the age of 65 cannot claim the benefit even though they provide substantial amounts of care. The majority of carers in the study wanted to see changes to ICA.
The research, which was funded by British Gas, also shows that worries about their finances was having an adverse effect on carers' health. Local MP Mike Hancock said “As a first step, it is vital to ensure that carers and the people they care for are getting all the benefits to which they are entitled. Many people do not realise that they might be able to claim benefits to meet the costs of disability and nearly 40 per cent of disability benefits go unclaimed.”
Caring can affect anyone at any time. Almost everyone can expect to care for an elderly, ill or disabled relative at some time in their lives. At present, nearly one in eight adults in the constituency - about 10,000 people - is a carer. In the UK, about one million carers provide full-time care.
