The financial, physical and emotional toll of being an unpaid carer

You’re right to praise Kate Garraway for shining a light on the financial, physical and emotional toll of being an unpaid carer (Editorial, 27 March). The government still provides nowhere near enough support to the millions of people – including one million children – who care, unpaid, for their loved ones every day, saving the state £160bn a year.

Our collective failure to fix social care has locked millions of unpaid carers in entrenched poverty. Carers Trust research shows that nearly two-thirds of unpaid carers have cut back on paid work or given up their jobs because of their caring role, while carer’s allowance remains the lowest-level benefit of its kind, with such strict eligibility criteria that many unpaid carers cannot claim. Meanwhile, the British Social Attitudes Survey shows that public satisfaction with the system is at its lowest ebb, with half of those who are dissatisfied citing the lack of support for unpaid carers.

The impact of our broken social care system on huge swathes of the electorate should be one of the defining issues of the general election. Instead, it risks being ignored. In the meantime, we have millions of Kate Garraways counting the daily cost.
Kirsty McHugh
CEO, Carers Trust

• Your editorial paints a depressing picture of the negative light in which carers are perceived, and mentions briefly the issue of financial hardship. I write as the life partner of someone with a longstanding mental health condition. Our bond is very strong, but financial hardship is a real concern for us.

People may not be aware that when a person is sectioned under the Mental Health Act, as my partner has been on several occasions, any benefits their partner receives as a result of caring for that person automatically stop, which in our case means no universal credit or carer’s allowance – a drop in income of more than £700 a month.

For couples like us, this is simply unsustainable, even though I run my own business, and am currently studying for postgraduate qualifications. Perhaps our shadow chancellor could address this matter if Labour does form the next government?
Name and address supplied

• I don’t dispute the view expressed in your editorial that carers get a raw deal. You refer to them as being “practically invisible in our public conversation”. However, disabled people themselves are completely invisible and are now rarely included in debates or given an opportunity to express views and opinions on issues that directly affect their lives.

The Guardian’s Frances Ryan regularly highlights in her articles the desperate situations that disabled people are experiencing due to lack of services preventing them from exercising their right to live independently. Politically, disability issues have now been removed from the brief of the minister for equalities, meaning that disabled people no longer have a specific parliamentary champion.

This lack of inclusion in public/political debate is becoming increasingly worrying, especially as the campaign for legislation on assisted dying accelerates. As public services diminish and pressure mounts on disabled people, including me, I propose as a matter or urgency that a dedicated disability rights commission be reinstated, led by disabled people, to safeguard our existence and to protect our hard-won human and civil rights to live independently.
Jane Nation
London

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