Families should no longer be expected to provide unpaid care for loved ones.
That’s the view of the House of Lords Adult Social Care Committee.
Carers UK chief executive Helen Walker says unpaid carers have to choose between heating and eating during the cost-of-living crisis
‘Unfair’ assumption
The committee’s new report, A Gloriously Ordinary Life, says the assumption that families will ‘step up’ to provide unpaid care is ‘unfair’.
And the report calls on the UK Government to ‘immediately’ make it easier to claim Carer’s Allowance.
This is the main benefit for carers, which is worth only £69.70 per week.
And carers can only claim Carer’s Allowance if they look after someone for at least 35 hours a week.
Also, working carers who earn more than £132 a week cannot claim the benefit.
Adult social care ‘invisible’
The Committee’s report recommended that the threshold for caring hours should be cut. It also said the earnings limit should rise in line with increases in the national living wage.
Baroness Andrews chairs the committee.
She said adult social care is ‘invisible’ and the report was designed to ‘bring those who draw on and provide unpaid care into the daylight’.
Benefit ‘does not reflect value of role’
Helen Walker is the chief executive of charity Carers UK.
She said Carer’s Allowance is the “lowest benefit of its kind” and “does not reflect the value of unpaid carers’ role”.
Walker said it was “especially concerning” that the earnings threshold for Carer’s Allowance was not keeping pace with rises in the national living wage during the current cost-of-living crisis.
The report made wide-ranging recommendations on social care. They include providing ‘long-term funding’, remedying low pay and creating a commissioner for care.
Increased funding
A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said it had prioritised “the biggest funding increase in history”, with £7.5 billion for adult social care over the next two years.
The spokesperson added that the department is also “providing local authorities with over £290m for short breaks and respite services, as well as additional advice and support”.
Related:
- Carers need living wage, mum tells Lords
- Cost of living worsens carers’ plight
- Survey reveals plight of unpaid carers
- Virus forces carers to use food banks
- Mum battles to raise carers’ benefit
- Charity claims carers don’t want wage
- Plea to give carers the breaks they need
- Carers’ plight on World Autism Day
- Parent carers in line for a better deal
- Carers sick with money worries
Published: 15 December 2022
