011.

I am a carer who receives Carer's Allowance every week.  My father has Multiple Sclerosis and is effectively housebound because of this.

Before the General Election last year, Yours Magazine approached the three main parties and asked them about their plans for Carers.  Yvette Cooper, who at the time was Secretary of State For Work and Pensions in a Labour Government, came out with this statement "Carers Allowance has been a form of income replacement for people who cannot work full time because of caring responsibilities".

Carer's Allowance at the moment is £55.55 a week.  In 2010 it was less than that.  In addition to that, Carers who receive CA are not allowed to earn more than £100 a week without losing their CA.  That brings us to a total of £155.55 possible earnings a week that I am entitled to.  The IFS recently published figures showing the poverty line in this country.  As a single adult with no children, the poverty line is £165 per week.  I technically live below the poverty line.

These are some things you should know:

• CA is NOT a means tested benefit.  Yet there are restrictions on how much I am allowed to earn while receiving it.
• While my father has MS, he is not as bad as he could be.  I do not have to lift him, I do not have to feed him.  I am able to live my own life to some degree.
• There are people who care for others who are in far worse condition than my father is.  They are under the same restrictions as I am with regards to earnings.

To claim CA, you have to spend at least 35 hours a week caring for a person.  Taken at the minimum level of care, CA per hour works out at roughly £1.58.  Yvette Cooper called £1.58 an hour a wage replacement benefit.  A bit of Googling and I find that a Care Nurse hired to look after my father would earn around £13-16 an hour.

Carer's UK has a Care Calculator on their webpage to calculate how much Carers save this country.  Again, calculated at the minimum amount of hours (5 hours a day, 7 days a week = 35 hours) a Carer saves this country £32,850 a year.  That is £29,962 more than what I get in CA a year.

Remember, that is at the minimum level of care a carer must provide to claim CA.  Many carers work for long hours that exhaust them both physically and emotionally with no respite.  The money they save this country could very well register in the hundreds of thousands.  All the while they get £55.55 a week.

To be blunt, I hope these statistics shock you.  I hope they make you feel repulsed.  I hope they make you feel sick.

Carers are constantly told how wonderful we are.  How fabulous and warm hearted we must be for taking on these duties.  Yet, as soon as we want something other than empty praise, we're ignored.  We're told that there's no money for help.  We're told that respite care budgets will be slashed.  We're told that Taxicab trips for the people we care for will be cut.  We're told that, actually, everything would be better if we just took our praise and shut up about needing anything more than that.

No.  Without us, this country would be even more in the gutter than it already is.  I once idly suggested that carers should take the whole of Carer's Week off.  We should leave the people we care for at our local hospitals, go on holiday and see how long this country could cope with the extra demands.

It wouldn't cope.  Carer's UK commissioned research  to show the economic value of carers.  In 2009-10, the annual cost of the NHS was £98.8 billion.  The economic value of carers?  £119 billion.  If this country didn't have us, it would be bankrupt.

I am privileged amongst carers because I have the time to write about this.  I have the time to kick up a fuss, to try to educate people about what it is we as a group do for this country with no appreciation.  I know that somewhere in the UK right now there are parents not sleeping because they're looking after a child with Cystic Fibrosis.  There's an elderly husband watching over his wife because she has Alzheimers.  There are children younger than me, who cannot claim CA, awake wondering if they'll get bullied at school tomorrow because they haven't had time to wash their hair.  Because they're looking after a parent who, for whatever reason, needs their help.

This is not about me.  This is about them.  It's about every single carer in this country being under-appreciated, not being helped, not being paid enough and feeling abandoned because of it.  This is unacceptable.  You should help us.

Carers UK has a donation page

Barnardos helps young carers and offers a range of 'real gifts' some of which are specifically for young carers, such as days out and money management courses.

xo