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MORE than 100 organisations have signed an open letter to MPs today warning that many carers already living in poverty are under “intolerable pressure” as the coronavirus outbreak continues.
The government’s carer’s allowance is currently £67.25 a week for an unpaid kinship carer looking after someone for more than 35 hours a week. Research by Carers UK, one of the signatories, suggests that 81 per cent of unpaid carers are spending more money during the Covid-19 outbreak.
Anti-poverty campaigners, unions and women’s rights organisations wrote the letter to demand that underpaid carers are offered more help. The signatories warn that an inadequate social-security system and low wages have left paid and unpaid carers stuck in poverty for years, which is now being exacerbated by the Covid-19 pandemic.
Labour will find increases in the state pension age are unacceptable, just as cuts to the Winter Fuel Allowance, personal independence payments and universal credit are — it needs to change direction immediately, writes PCS general secretary FRAN HEATHCOTE
In the current climate, it is vital to bust the myths and put forward the case for a humane and decent social security system that supports people, argues FRAN HEATHCOTE
