Unpaid carers across West Yorkshire 'facing poverty'
We've been speaking to Sharon Day from Sheffield who has to care for her father in Ossett
Retail trade union Usdaw has joined forces with over 90 organisations to help unpaid carers escape poverty.
The new coalition will campaign for better financial support for carers and changes to enable them to combine paid work with unpaid care.
Carers UK, Age UK, Carers Trust, Joseph Rowntree Foundation, Motor Neurone Disease Association, MS Society, Oxfam GB, Rethink Mental Illness, We Care Campaign and Usdaw are among the 93 organisations who have signed up to the Carers Poverty Coalition.
They’ve come together in an effort to lessen the financial hardship experienced by millions of unpaid carers across the UK and will look at what carers need to support them to continue with paid work, alongside their caring role, for as long as possible.
Paddy Lillis – Usdaw General Secretary says: “Usdaw has a long record of campaigning for a social security system that better supports people providing unpaid care, along with changes to help carers stay in paid work for longer while caring.
"So we are pleased to join forces with so many other organisations who share our aims and ambitions.
“The vast majority of care in the UK is provided by family and friends; without their willingness and ability to provide care, local authority social services and the NHS would collapse under the strain. All too often carers feel life is a pressure cooker of competing demands, with worries about money, time off work, their own health and that of the person they are caring for. Now, with more people than ever providing care, the Government must act to recognise and properly reward their enormous contribution.”
Meanwhile, a South Yorkshire woman who faced poverty when becoming an unpaid carer is calling for 'better rights' for people in her position.
Sharon Day from Sheffield looks after her dad in Ossett & also works at a supermarket.
However, she's had to cut back her hours to support him:
"I can't afford to cut my hours down any more than I have done. It's really hard and there should be more help than what's currently available.
"My friends have had to bring me my shopping and I even ended up off work sick for a time as well. I didn't know if I was going to make it through.
"So, I know what it's like to have nothing at all in this situation."
Last year, the government introduced new laws entitling unpaid carers up to 1 week of unpaid leave a year.