Carers Rights Day 2022

Each year Carers Rights Day is held to bring organisations across the UK together to help carers in their local community know their rights and find out how to get the help and support they are entitled to.

This year Carers Rights Day 24th November!!!

Having the right information at the right time can make all the difference when you’re looking after someone.

Every day 6,000 people become carers but often it’s not something we’ve planned for.This Carers Rights Day we’re focusing on supporting people to prepare for the future through our theme: Caring for Your Future.

Link to Carers Rights Guide from CarersUK

We here at Northamptonshire Carers are proud to work with employers to encourage support in the workplace and to strive to ensure that working carers are valued.

https://www.northamptonshire-carers.org/Pages/Category/employers-employment

We wanted to share with you this letter we received from a carer who had not previously heard of Carers Rights Day.

I love my Mum to bits, and I am privileged to be her Carer. I do it for a £69.00 a week Carers Allowance.  To qualify for Carers Allowance, you have to provide a minimum of 35 hours of Care-Giving a week.  Effectively this means the Government values my work at £1.97 an hour!  The £69.00 doesn’t increase if you provide more than 35 hours a week.  In real terms, I am working 90+ hours a week (forget sleep in payments)! and when I add on my real hours of Care Giving, I actually pay the Government 0.86 pence an hour to provide essential care to my Mum.  Carers UK estimate that I am one of 11.5 million Unpaid Carers in the UK who provide care and support to someone, and they estimate that Unpaid Carers are saving the Government £193 billion a year. To add insult to injury, I can’t earn more than £132.00 take home pay a week before the Government stops my Carers Allowance.  I work 90+ hours a week caring for my Mum and on top of this, I also work 15 hours a week for a Care Organisation earning just above the minimum wage to ensure that I can have the heating on 24hrs a day if I need to, so that my Mum is warm, comfy and snug – she’s 86 and if I couldn’t work, I would commit crimes to keep her well.

As well as highlighting Carers Rights Day, I wanted to share that Carers go through more than they will tell you. They give up a lot! They might give up a job or a career and may rarely have a social life. A lack of disposable income often contributes to a Carer making excuses for not going out when opportunities arise and gradually, a Carer might lose touch with friends and colleagues who they were once were very close with. Carers get sick but can’t take the day off, they might become emotionally worn out but they can’t stop in real terms, and it’s a lot for what is often one person to take on.  I hope I’m not making a sweeping assumption, but I really do not think the overwhelming depth of it all can ever truly be known until you have walked the road of a Carer.

I have experienced all of the above in one form or another but I wouldn’t change a thing because I love my Mum and for me, it is my moral and honourable duty to care for her. Sometimes that involves me just being there, just being with my Mum and being committed to her and the experiences it brings, and one day, when there is nothing more I can do for my Mum, I have to finally be able to hold her hand and say “I’m with you Mum in this experience and I’m with you right through to the end of it”

I’m taking my hat off and applauding with great respect, all Carers, young and old, across all corners or our world. I’m also sharing three personal thank-you messages. Firstly, thank you to Liam, my loyal, loving, supportive partner who has always been “the power behind the throne”. Secondly, thank you to the amazing Northamptonshire Carers Association for their tireless support to Carers in the Northamptonshire area, particularly Cathie and Nadia.

And lastly, to my Mum – thank you Mum for caring for me when I was young, and while I care for you now, I still need you more than you know. Thank you, Mum for showing me what unconditional love is and thank you Mum for being my Unpaid Carer when I needed it and thank you Mum for being my teacher, my mentor and my best friend ever x