Usdaw echoes call to support carers

Today, shopworkers union, Usdaw, welcomes the Work & Pensions Select Committee’s call for changes to the current ‘outdated’ system of benefits for carers.

Usdaw represents many hundreds of working carers who are struggling to combine paid work with their caring responsibilities. For more than three years Usdaw, the UK’s fourth largest union, has been running a high profile campaign seeking improved rights and benefits for working carers. Usdaw strongly supports the Committee’s call to reform benefits to ensure they enable carers to remain in paid work or rejoin the labour market where they are able to and wish to do so.

John Hannett, Usdaw’s General Secretary, who also sits on the Standing Commission on Carers said:

“We know from listening to our members that financial support is a top priority. Carers don’t want handouts but they do want help with the extra costs caring brings. Our members want the freedom to earn a wage and to take up extra hours of work without losing their entitlement to Carers Allowance.

“We welcomed the opportunity this summer to give evidence to the Committee, evidence rooted in the everyday experience of our members who are struggling to juggle paid work with their caring commitments. We congratulate Government on their commitment to conducting a wholesale review of the financial support and are confident the findings of the Select Committee will be given the weight they deserve.

“We echo the Committee’s call for change. The current system of benefits needs to change – it needs to be more responsive to reflect the reality of carers’ lives in the 21st Century.”

For more information on our campaign visit:

Notes to Editors:

• Contacts for newsdesks: Usdaw’s Media Officer, Cherry Hamilton, can be contacted on 0161 249 2469 or e-mail cherry.hamilton@usdaw.org.uk
• Usdaw (the Union of Shop, Distributive and Allied Workers) is the UK’s fourth biggest trade union, with over 367,000 members. Most Usdaw members work in the retail sector, but the union also has many members in transport, distribution, food manufacturing, chemicals and other trades.
• More information and news releases are available at our online Newsroom.
• Subscribe/unsubscribe to Usdaw news releases via our online e-news service at: http://www.usdaw.org.uk/site/email.html

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© 2003 (USDAW) Union of Shop, Distributive and Allied Workers
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