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Carers' Rights Day: Government must deliver on support for carers - Burstow
December 3, 2002 3:45 PM
Carers' Rights Day: Government must deliver on support for carers - Burstow
Paul Burstow MP today backed the Carers UK "Carer's Rights Day", which aims to get crucial community and benefits information to the UK's seven million carers. He also pressed the Government to deliver on its promise to create a fund to support carers and highlighted that there are 15,642 carers in Sutton providing £146million of support.
Carers save the economy around £57 billion per year, with support provided by carers in London and the South East alone worth nearly £13 billion per year, according to Carers UK. But many carers are unaware of the benefits and support to which they are entitled.
Paul Burstow MP, said:
"Without the active help of carers, many local authorities and voluntary organisations would struggle. Yet two years after Parliament gave carers the right to have their needs assessed, they are still waiting for the Government to deliver. "
"Labour made a manifesto commitment to create a fund to support carers, yet they have failed to deliver on this promise."
"It is vital that Carers are given the recognition they deserve. That's why today's Carers' Rights Day is so important. Carers must get the support to which they are entitled. At present, carers are under valued, overlooked and overloaded."
"ENDS"
"Notes to Editors."
"• Every year, 2.3 million people in the UK become carers."
"• In a Carers UK survey, half of the carers providing substantial care said they took longer than two years to realise that they were a carer."
"• Because of overlapping benefits rules, most pensioners who are carers will not get ICA on top of their state pension. However, they will have an 'underlying entitlement' to the benefit - meaning that the poorest pensioners may be entitled to other means-tested benefits such as Housing Benefit or Council Tax Benefit. Those on Income Support may get the Carer Premium on top of their Income Support."
"ICA is paid to carers who:"
"• look after someone for 35 hours a week"
"• look after someone who gets a specified disability benefit"
"• earn £75 a week or less"
"• fulfil residence and immigration criteria"
"• do not receive one of a list of other specified benefits (including state retirement pension, incapacity benefit and bereavement benefits)"
"• are not full time students"
"• are over the age of 16."
"Estimate of value of carer's support by region"
"The following table contains information on:"
"• The number of carers (from Mid-2000 Population Estimates, Series PE No. 3, ONS, HMSO 2001. The number of carers is calculated by regional percentages derived by the 1995 General Household Survey. Data found in the National Strategy for Carers, 1999.)"
"• Value of carers' support based on the 1993 estimate by the Institute of Actuaries of a total value of £34 billion."
"• Value of carers' support based on the Carers UK report "Without Us…" (2002), updating the 1993 Institute of Actuaries estimate to a total value of £57 billion."
"• Increase in value of carers' support, 1993 - 2002."
"Region No. of carers Value of carers' support, 1993 (£34 billion total)"
"£millions Value of carers' support, 2002 (£57 billion total)"
"£millions Increase in value of carers' support"
"£millions"
"North East 227,161 1259.1 2124.9 865.8"
"North West 906,632 5025.2 8480.7 3455.5"
"Yorkshire & the Humber 443,102 2456.0 4144.8 1688.8"
"East Midlands 437,489 2424.9 4092.3 1667.4"
"West Midlands 592,060 3281.6 5538.2 2256.6"
"Eastern 537,218 2977.7 5025.2 2047.5"
"London 647,174 3587.1 6053.8 2466.7"
"South East 714,076 3957.9 6679.6 2721.6"
"South West 482,820 2676.1 4516.4 1840.2"
"England (all local authorities) 4,987,732 27645.7 46655.9 19010.2"
"Sutton 15,642 £86.7 £146.3 £59.6m
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