Comments on: Carers Week http://richardspring.mpblogs.com/2007/06/15/carers-week/ Member of Parliament for West Suffolk Sun, 23 Nov 2008 13:12:49 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.0.4 by: clive http://richardspring.mpblogs.com/2007/06/15/carers-week/#comment-19720 Wed, 20 Jun 2007 12:03:03 +0000 http://richardspring.mpblogs.com/2007/06/15/carers-week/#comment-19720 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 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

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