Or, like the wife and I, just looking after our elderly parents.
And that’s not even the worst of it. My uncle was 60 years old when he died, had been suffering from early onset dementia and for the entire 8 years I chose to focus on him, they chased me up about benefits, constantly called me to “consider returning to work”, had me fight, *endlessly* for his benefits and PIP, a medical diagnosis and spent half of that time refusing any kind of adult social care that would have enriched his life.
He’s dead now. To tie it all off, when I finally got a point where I needed a break because he’d become violent towards the end, I managed to get a couple of weeks respite where his final choice was to go through endless surgeries to combat cancer and dementia, or sleep quietly at the mercy of end of life care. I am in what could only be described as a hellhole of debt as I used any of my credit to privately pay for healthcare assistants, and I don’t know what to do with my life. I’m trying to be positive, and I’m trying to keep my chin up, but most of the time I spend alone, wanting to stop breathing myself.
Edit: OH! AND LET’S TALK ABOUT THE FUCKING SUSPICION!
on a regular basis, I would have someone from adult social care “check in to make sure things were alright”…And making sure that I was properly spending his money well for him. I get it, there are some bad faith actors out there, but at this point it’s left me so hollow.
5 million people in England and Wales have families and take care of each other like you’re supposed to…
There are attendance allowance and carers allowance, but they don’t go far these days.
How many people are there in the UK? About 67 million people? So nearly 7.5% are unpaid carers? Really? Think of the numbers here people. Not sure I believe this.
This country treats old people like shit. Private nursing homes are shit. What this government has done to social services and the NHS is shit. The disgusting bastards have their own retirement set up nicely and are willing to watch the older generation writhe in pain, be ignored, freeze to death, starve, be abused, mistreated, not allowed to die when they want and worse.
Ah David Cameron’s big society where they strip everything away and shut down all outlets for people and let the people care for everyone for free.
Those five million Unpaid Carers put £138Bn into the economy. As they are *unpaid* carers that involves no benefits being handed out. On top of the unpaid carers there are “paid” carers – whose “remuneration” is so far below the cost of living that they provide the entire country with a healthy subsidy. In short, Carers working for nothing or next to nothing are absolutely necessary to the existence of the NHS. The average duration of Caring is 15 years. The average Carer accrues debt which is unlikely to be from a bank and that debt is, more often than not, due to the various “policies” of Local Authorities and their all too cosy relationship with “care providers” who, essentially, bleed families dry for profit.
Unpaid Carers suffer from loss of earnings – anybody can become a Carer, even if they have a £100K a year job – so this is not about unskilled people. The average loss per year for Carers is just on £30K which is where the £138Bn *estimate* comes from. The reality is that there is a wide range of incomes and the true value may be much more than £138Bn. Carers are far from being “on benefits”. In reality they are subsidising the State, Businesses, Local Authorities, and the NHS. The £138Bn value of *unpaid* carers is more than the annual budget of the NHS.
And you can witter on about how you should look after your own. The reality for Carers is that it is the youngest child, more usually women, who are forced into being carers to the benefit of their siblings who are not particularly interested in being carers. Then there are the working class families who all pull together and pay to care for and house their relative. Inevitably these are the people whose entire estate is leeched away. Ensuring the intergenerational poverty that can be characterised as “intergenerational worklessness”.
The Carers Allowance is little more than indentured servitude which is marginally better than the Unpaid Carer’s lot where subsidising everyone else is the order of existence. And, all of this says nothing about the loss to the economy of people whose skills range *right across the economy from Bankers to Security Guards*. The reality is there is a scandal, decades in the making and Guardian is not even scratching the surface.
Saving the government a fortune in social care bills and helping to justify their refusal to invest more into the sector. Why spend money when family will pick up their slack? It’s disgusting but you know it is what the government are thinking.
How many of them are because the cared for person is over the savings cap and should be paying for their own care?
Some “unpaid” caters do it to protect their inheritance, so less unpaid more delayed paid.
I was an unpaid carer for my Mum before she died, especially after she had a couple of small operations. I was also working full time.
Society has changed. I think the Government need to consider “parental leave” where a relation can take time off (unpaid) to care for a elderly family member.
The previous generation to me , women didn’t tend to work full time and we able to look after elderly relatives as my Mum did for my Gran.
11 comments
Or, like the wife and I, just looking after our elderly parents.
And that’s not even the worst of it. My uncle was 60 years old when he died, had been suffering from early onset dementia and for the entire 8 years I chose to focus on him, they chased me up about benefits, constantly called me to “consider returning to work”, had me fight, *endlessly* for his benefits and PIP, a medical diagnosis and spent half of that time refusing any kind of adult social care that would have enriched his life.
He’s dead now. To tie it all off, when I finally got a point where I needed a break because he’d become violent towards the end, I managed to get a couple of weeks respite where his final choice was to go through endless surgeries to combat cancer and dementia, or sleep quietly at the mercy of end of life care. I am in what could only be described as a hellhole of debt as I used any of my credit to privately pay for healthcare assistants, and I don’t know what to do with my life. I’m trying to be positive, and I’m trying to keep my chin up, but most of the time I spend alone, wanting to stop breathing myself.
Edit: OH! AND LET’S TALK ABOUT THE FUCKING SUSPICION!
on a regular basis, I would have someone from adult social care “check in to make sure things were alright”…And making sure that I was properly spending his money well for him. I get it, there are some bad faith actors out there, but at this point it’s left me so hollow.
5 million people in England and Wales have families and take care of each other like you’re supposed to…
There are attendance allowance and carers allowance, but they don’t go far these days.
How many people are there in the UK? About 67 million people? So nearly 7.5% are unpaid carers? Really? Think of the numbers here people. Not sure I believe this.
This country treats old people like shit. Private nursing homes are shit. What this government has done to social services and the NHS is shit. The disgusting bastards have their own retirement set up nicely and are willing to watch the older generation writhe in pain, be ignored, freeze to death, starve, be abused, mistreated, not allowed to die when they want and worse.
Ah David Cameron’s big society where they strip everything away and shut down all outlets for people and let the people care for everyone for free.
Those five million Unpaid Carers put £138Bn into the economy. As they are *unpaid* carers that involves no benefits being handed out. On top of the unpaid carers there are “paid” carers – whose “remuneration” is so far below the cost of living that they provide the entire country with a healthy subsidy. In short, Carers working for nothing or next to nothing are absolutely necessary to the existence of the NHS. The average duration of Caring is 15 years. The average Carer accrues debt which is unlikely to be from a bank and that debt is, more often than not, due to the various “policies” of Local Authorities and their all too cosy relationship with “care providers” who, essentially, bleed families dry for profit.
Unpaid Carers suffer from loss of earnings – anybody can become a Carer, even if they have a £100K a year job – so this is not about unskilled people. The average loss per year for Carers is just on £30K which is where the £138Bn *estimate* comes from. The reality is that there is a wide range of incomes and the true value may be much more than £138Bn. Carers are far from being “on benefits”. In reality they are subsidising the State, Businesses, Local Authorities, and the NHS. The £138Bn value of *unpaid* carers is more than the annual budget of the NHS.
And you can witter on about how you should look after your own. The reality for Carers is that it is the youngest child, more usually women, who are forced into being carers to the benefit of their siblings who are not particularly interested in being carers. Then there are the working class families who all pull together and pay to care for and house their relative. Inevitably these are the people whose entire estate is leeched away. Ensuring the intergenerational poverty that can be characterised as “intergenerational worklessness”.
The Carers Allowance is little more than indentured servitude which is marginally better than the Unpaid Carer’s lot where subsidising everyone else is the order of existence. And, all of this says nothing about the loss to the economy of people whose skills range *right across the economy from Bankers to Security Guards*. The reality is there is a scandal, decades in the making and Guardian is not even scratching the surface.
* [Entitled To](https://www.entitledto.co.uk/help/cost-of-living)
* [Turn To Us](https://benefits-calculator.turn2us.org.uk/)
* [Policy In Practice](https://www.betteroffcalculator.co.uk/login)
* [Carers UK](https://www.carersuk.org/)
* [Carers Assessment](https://www.carersuk.org/help-and-advice/practical-support/carers-assessment/)
* [NHS Support for Carers](https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/social-care-and-support-guide/support-and-benefits-for-carers/)
* [Carers Trust](https://carers.org/grants-and-discounts/introduction)
* [Alzheimers Support](https://www.alzheimers.org.uk/get-support/help-dementia-care/getting-support)
* [Online Help For Unpaid Carers](https://www.carersfirst.org.uk/online-support/)
Saving the government a fortune in social care bills and helping to justify their refusal to invest more into the sector. Why spend money when family will pick up their slack? It’s disgusting but you know it is what the government are thinking.
How many of them are because the cared for person is over the savings cap and should be paying for their own care?
Some “unpaid” caters do it to protect their inheritance, so less unpaid more delayed paid.
I was an unpaid carer for my Mum before she died, especially after she had a couple of small operations. I was also working full time.
Society has changed. I think the Government need to consider “parental leave” where a relation can take time off (unpaid) to care for a elderly family member.
The previous generation to me , women didn’t tend to work full time and we able to look after elderly relatives as my Mum did for my Gran.
Also women are starting families a lot later.