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.”
Usdaw is campaigning for the Government to lift the pressure on working carers by:
- Better enabling carers to balance work and care by introducing a statutory right to ten days paid carers leave for all working carers from day one of employment.
- Improving protection from discrimination and redundancy for carers by strengthening the law.
- Raising the rate of Carers Allowance and extending its reach.
Notes for editors:
Usdaw (Union of Shop, Distributive and Allied Workers) is the UK's fifth biggest trade union with around 360,000 members. Most Usdaw members work in the retail sector, but the union also has many members in transport, distribution, food manufacturing, chemical industry and other trades.
Carers UK is a national charity supporting and representing those with an unpaid caring responsibility for someone who has a disability, illness, mental health condition or who needs extra help as they grow older www.carersuk.org
Usdaw’s Supporting Parents and Carers campaign: www.usdaw.org.uk/Campaigns/Supporting-Parents-Carers
For Usdaw press releases visit: http://www.usdaw.org.uk/news and you can follow us on Twitter @UsdawUnion