This is exactly what the UK Government does to unpaid carer…

So in other words - IF you are fortunate enough to have time to take a job - you end up doing two jobs for half the money. So what you end up with is most full time carers being locked-in to the caring roll earning less than £2.30 an hour.

2020 has been a lesson that the UK population doesn't give a crap about carers, or low income families. Sure, they'll stand on their doorsteps and clap, or abuse their neighbour who didn't clap, but the reality is that it serves the British state to keep low income carers...

...and unpaid carers in forced servitude (and that's exactly what it is). When it broke that people were being forced to work for £3, 4, 5 per hour in sweat shops in northern England at the start of the pandemic, you couldn't turn on a TV channel without some politician...

...talking about "worker exploitation", but the reality is that the UK is ok with worker exploitation. It has engaged in it for decades through both Labour and Tory governments. It actually has legislation that specifically defines Carers Allowance as an allowance...

...rather than a benefit - because it being even a benefit would mean the Government had certain responsibilities to carers.

The average carer gets £114 per week and most work more than 60 hours per week.

There are 2 million full time and 6 million part time carers. Pre-Covid they saved the UK Government £136Billion per year. During this pandemic where public services have laid their responsibilities at the feet of unpaid carers....

...who by the way have absolutely no employment rights - that £136 billion was surpassed in 7 months of this year. Meaning that this year carers in the UK are on target to save the public purse over £210 Bn.

Putting that in perspective for you, that's the equivelant of the budgets for England, Scotland, Northern and Northern Ireland COMBINED.

I could put out 1000 tweets about carers and i'd be lucky to get 20 retweets about it. Put out a funny cat meme and i'd get 1000. The truth is that this " Britishness" that they try to sell as community spirit, it actually isn't.

The reality is that the UK is a place where the nimby's are in charge and forced servitude and worker exploitation are OK when hidden from site. Carers are dismissed as "having chosen to give up work" when in reality, most don't have a choice at all.

The reason they don't have a choice is because the system is designed to deprive them of that choice, and then to deprive them of a voice in telling the world they had no choice.

With politicians the words "We love carers" are usually followed by "they give up work". The reality is that they have given up nothing. Caring IS THEIR WORK. What they give up through no choice of their own, is their workers rights compared to their private and public sector...

....counterparts.

So I am not the least bit surprised the tories are doing this to those who are "allowed" to be classified as workers - not one bit!

https://t.co/rckHsogHaI

This is exactly what the UK Government does to unpaid carers -IF you are fortunate to have time to have another job (because you're not caring 24/7) they take your income support or UC pound for pound for every pound you earn. Once that's all gone they take your carers allowance.

More from Government

You May Also Like