Visit http://bit.ly/1clanaB to submit your message
Date: October 29th , 2013
Dear Lord Howe,
I am writing to you about the provisions in the Care Bill, which offer enhanced support for the carers of adults. While I support enhancing carers’ rights to assessment and support, I am dismayed by the exclusion of the carers of children and young people from the Bill.
Parents such as myself, who care for their disabled children provide them with vital care and support, as well as saving the state a significant sum of money, yet many receive inadequate support. A significant proportion of parent carers feel financially and socially isolated and face mental health problems.
Amaze, a charity that supports families with disabled children had a recent survey that found 58% of parent carers feel stressed, anxious or depressed some of the time, while 18% feels that way all the time. There is a lack of support, with 70% of respondents reporting that they are completely or mainly alone in their caring role. 22% of carers reported that they have not had a day or evening off from caring in over six months, while 14% have never had an evening off from caring. Only 15% of parent carers receive any respite care, of whom 82% said that any reduction in this would have a devastating impact on their family.
I care for [INCLUDE YOUR FAMILY DETAILS HERE IF YOU WISH or simply delete this paragraph if not]
Providing carers like me with support to continue looking after our children makes financial sense, and avoids the need for more costly interventions if families such as ours fall into crisis later on.
Yet the Bill as currently drafted excludes the carers of children from the enhanced rights to support and assessment, which are provided to the carers of adults.
If this is an unintentional omission, will you please include an urgent amendment, as urged by the carers charities, Carers UK and The Carers Trust, to end this penalising of people who care for children rather than adults?
How can the Government justify offering less support to people because they care for children rather than adults?
I realise this is a late submission, however it is difficult to join political campaigns for our own benefit while we are caring for our disabled children at the same time!
Yours sincerely