News

The third annual Carers' Rights Day comes at a time when new research shows that many carers are still missing out on the financial support and services they are legally entitled to.

Charity Carers UK released figures last week which estimated that £660m worth of carer's allowance, their main benefit, goes unclaimed every year and that 300,000 people across the UK are missing out. Carers' Rights Day, organised by Carer's UK, aims to raise awareness of the financial help and other support available to carers.


Imelda Redmond, chief executive of Carers UK, explains that the problem is caused by people failing to identify themselves as carers and professionals' ignorance. "There is still a low level of awareness among professionals so there is no wonder that there is a low level among the public," she explains.

She says that although the amount of money given to carers' services in recent years through the carers' grant has increased significantly, it "really isn't enough".

The low benefit take-up has compounded the problems of social exclusion. "If carers don't get the right support then their health suffers and it leads to poverty and isolation," says Redmond.

The charity would like to see regular information campaigns taking place to ensure carers are aware of their entitlements and for information to be made more widely available. To help tackle this, carers can now claim their allowance online - not that all carers have easy access to the internet.

Even for those who do claim carer's allowance, at £43.15 a week - £1.23 an hour for a 35-hour week - it does not go very far. As a part of his "big conversation" with the public, the prime minister admitted last week that "there is a gap in the system" for carers who give up their jobs to care full-time and pledged to improve their situation.

As well as not receiving financial benefits, many carers are not being supported by local authorities according to a new study of carers looking after someone with a mental illness by mental health charity Rethink. The research found that only one in five carers had had their needs assessed and only one in three had their identified needs addressed.

"Some carers ask why they should go through all of that process of having their needs assessed to be told that 'yes, you need x, y and z but we are unable to provide it'," says Paul Corry, head of policy and campaigns at Rethink, and one of the authors of the report.

Other findings included nine out of 10 carers reporting that their caring role had a moderate to significant effect on their general health. Depression, sleeplessness and worry were common among carers.

The report finds that many carers become worn down by their role before any help is offered.

"If you provide carers with information they soak it up and the voluntary sector actually does that but very often statutory services don't give carers something as simple as a website address or a telephone number," says Corry.

The survey, which covered 1,400 mental health carers, also finds that 62 per cent feel their views are not considered by professionals.

"Carers want to be included in the decision-making process and those who are feel better in themselves," says Corry.

He argues that it makes economic sense for carers to be well supported, adding that, eventually, local authorities and health services end up caring for two people because they failed to provide sufficiently for one.

Currently, the only performance indicator in the comprehensive performance assessment framework explicitly about carers measures the number of assessments a council carries out. The government announced last week that it intends to look at introducing more indicators for carers next year, including one measuring the services carers receive once assessed.

Sarah Pickup, director of adult care services at Hertfordshire Council and carers lead for the Association of Directors of Social Services, says that while helpful such a performance indicator would be difficult to implement because it is often hard to separate services that support carers and clients.


The government's recent announcement that the carers' grant will no longer be ring-fenced from next April has also caused concern that the money will be routed to other council services.

Pickup believes most local authorities recognise the importance of providing carers' services and will not redirect the money. Doing so would be a "false economy" proving more costly in the long run.

She also says that the ending of ring-fencing should be seen as an opportunity for social services to use the money more flexibly as they will no longer be made to spend proportions of it on certain services for carers, such as carers' breaks, by government. "Yes, there's a risk but there's an opportunity as well."

Attention from the prime minister, new performance indicators and improved publicity about rights and entitlements could see more carers receiving better support.

If not, then the government is looking at creating a hefty bill and is failing some of the most dedicated people in society. 

- Carers UK free guide to carers' rights from 020 7237 5725 or www.carersonline.org.uk   

- Under Pressure available from www.rethink.org  

'Nobody has ever come round'

Mark* has been a full-time carer for his wife since 1990. She was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 1984.

When Sarah* first became ill the couple began to have contact with an occupational therapist and therefore Mark thought that the local authority, Norfolk Council, would be aware of his situation but received no contact from them in regards to his role as a carer.

He began to receive free help from Crossroads, an organisation that provides a sitting service for carers and is funded by the council, after being told about it by a friend. For five years he received help for five hours a week enabling him to go out but then his hours were reduced to three. Mark wrote to his MP and a social worker came round almost immediately.

He now gets around 15 hours of help a week from social services and Crossroads and is happy with the help, but remains bitter about the past. "The first social worker we ever met was five years after I had given up work and nine years after Sarah had MS diagnosed."

Mark says that nobody has ever come round and carried out an assessment on him using the proper assessment forms. He hurt his leg in April prompting him to ask for extra help and was sent an assessment form for the first time, which he filled in and returned. However, he has received no confirmation from the council that it received it and no information about its progress despite ringing to try and find out.

Mark has been claiming carer's allowance ever since he started being a carer and says he found out about it himself. "The council did not tell me about it and that amazes me." Although he is aware of his rights and entitlements he says that many others are not. "From time to time I meet people who don't know about anything," he explains.

Norfolk Council said it was not surprised Mark was unimpressed with services in the past, but "we're pleased he's happy now".

* Not their real names