3-12-02

Barrett calls for Government action on Carers’ Rights Day

John Barrett, Scottish Liberal Democrat MP for Edinburgh West, will tomorrow back the Carers UK "Carer's Rights Day", which aims to get crucial community and benefits information to the UK's seven million carers.

Carers save the economy around £57 billion per year, according to Carers UK. However, many carers are unaware of the benefits and support to which they are entitled.

In a statement, John Barrett said:

"Carers play a crucial role in communities across Edinburgh and throughout the UK. Without them, many voluntary groups would simply not be able to function properly. Yet the Westminster Government has left carers in limbo, having failed to produce a report on the assessment of carer's needs, as agreed by Parliament two years ago.

"Many councils have cut care services for those people who have a paid 'carer', leaving families with the responsibility of looking after their loved ones. Today's Carers' Rights Day is crucial to inform such carers of the help which is available and to press the Government to do more to ensure carers have adequate support to carry out their crucial role."

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 carers’ support

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	Scotland (all local authorities)
No. of carers	534,827
Value of carers' support, 1993 (£34 billion total) £millions	2960.0
Value of carers' support, 2002 (£57 billion total) £millions	5000.0
Increase in value of carers' support £millions	2040.0