Carers Week
As many of you may know, this week has given us an opportunity to acknowledge and pay tribute to the valuable work performed day-in, day-out by carers in Britain. Carers Week, in June every year, is a time when the role of carers is deservedly placed in the spotlight.
Carers devote much of their time to looking after someone close to them who would not be able to take care of themselves. They may be frail, ill, or suffer from a disability which prevents them being independent. Many of the carers are children themselves, with an estimated 175,000 child carers in Britain, and 18,000 children aged between 5 and 15 providing 20 or more hours of care a week.
People who choose to care for a loved one often make large sacrifices in terms of their jobs, careers and their own personal life. Caring can be extremely difficult and stressful. Yet the carers I have met not only work incredibly hard but do it modestly and discreetly.
There are many organisations across the country that help provide information, support and guidance for carers. Suffolk Family Carers in my constituency provides support for 98,000 family carers in Suffolk. Their efforts deserve to be recognised and highlighted and I am proud to have this opportunity to do so.
If you are a carer in Suffolk and would like further information about this organisation, please visit www.suffolk-carers.co.uk
Further information about carers nationally can be found at:
clive said on June 20th, 2007 at 1:03 pm:
Carers Week was forgettable as usual, it did nothing to raise public awareness of how Carers are exploited. I has failed year after year to do anything to address Carer poverty, it’s a PR exercise to boost Carers UK’s flagging membership.
So my main gripe/gripes Richard are WHEN is THIS or ANY government going to do the morally right thing and pay Carers for the work they do? The only benefit that has to be worked for and it’s BELOW the level of JSA or Income Support where people can sit on their backsides all day watching TV. Carers work a minimum 35 hours a week (most way over that) yet this and past governments exploit this workforce, even robbing them of their Carers Allowance should they have the nerve to reach retirement age whilst still being a Carer! That is shabby to say the least, please don’t mention the overlapping benefit rule, we all know that is done to penny-pinch. Carers are treated worse and paid less than prisoners for gods sake, it’s time to pay them what they deserve and NOT punish them for saving the country over £57 billion a year.
Second gripe, it seems Gordon Brown is ‘talking’ to Carers today…or rather talking to 2 elitist charities who have supplied well paid employees to sit and nod and wring their hands for all us ‘unsung heroes’ STUFF THAT, we Carers are more than able to speak for ourselves, as I said ours is THE most popular Carer support group that have harnessed the internet to provide a ‘community’ (try looking at it www.ukcarers.org,uk though if any politician is looking for praise then he/she is in for a nasty shock)
So, the long and short of it is WHEN are politicians going to interact with us ordinary Carers? Imelda Redmond (Carers UK CEO) and Shan Nicholas (Princess Royal Trust for Carers) are seen as figures of contempt to be despised for drawing LARGE salaries (verifiable by going to the charity commission web site) and refusing to allow Carers to have input into government consultations, IN FACT they are downright obstructive.
The ONLY person that knows what a Carer goes through IS another Carer.
So come on Richard, how about helping enable Carers to take part in the sham that is this new consulation? (the ‘Ideas Tree’ is a patronising exercise) UK Carers awaits ANY politician with the guts to interact with us