An Insult to Carers.......an open letter to Eamon O’Cuiv.

As if cuts to Carers’ benefits were not already enough Minister for Social Protection, Eamon O’Cuiv, now kicks them while they’re down.

His plan to introduce community work for dole claimants offers rates, hours, terms and conditions that make a mockery of those caring for the sick and disabled.

Those on unemployment benefit will be offered a non-means-tested payment of around €210 euros for a working week of just 19.5 hours AND they will be allowed to work part-time on top of this without losing their benefits payment.

This is one almighty slap in the face for the nation’s carers, some of whom can end up working those kinds of hours in JUST ONE DAY. Ask anyone caring for an elderly person with Alzheimer’s disease or a sleep disordered autistic spectrum child how many hours they work per week and the answer will horrify you.

The last survey of the nation’s carers undertaken in 2009 showed 161, 000 carers providing 3.7 million hours of care PER WEEK, with their unpaid labour saving the state 2.8 billion euros on its annual budget. The minimum average amount of hours per week worked by a carer is 24 but this obscures the fact that they may also need to be on call at all times. Those who provide high dependency care average 60 hours per week of hands-on care plus constant supervision and monitoring.

Recent cuts to supports, services, day centres and respite mean that current figures are, in reality, much higher.

AND YET, only 27% of all these carers are in receipt of a Carer’s Allowance because it is a means tested payment and carers are allowed to work for only 15 hours per week in addition to their caring duties. Working just one hour over the limit will eradicate the payment entirely. Out of this 27% only 64% receive the full rate of the allowance,  thus 73% OF THE NATION’S CARERS GET NO FINANCIAL RECOGNITION FROM THE STATE AT ALL.

Care and support for the sick and disabled has been viciously and repeatedly slashed and yet Minister O’Cuiv talks about putting the nation’s unemployed to work in childcare, sports clubs, after-school programmes, day centres and meals-on-wheels schemes. Has he stopped to consider issues of suitability for the work ? Or the enormous task of garda clearance for the thousands of unemployed people that he intends to put into positions where they are working with children or vulnerable people?

A full Carer’s Allowance, for the minority who manage to qualify is €212 per week. Most carers get no break at all, providing help and support every day of every week of every year. Their ability to earn anything above this amount is constricted not only by an imposed 15 hour limit but also by the factors of available time and energy. And a Carer’s Allowance is fully taxable.

Contrast this to Minister O’Cuiv’s terms for the unemployed. €210 for 19.5 hours, non-means-tested, no limit on additional working hours on the top, rolled out to 40,000 people who have been rendered unemployed by this government’s crass ineptitude.

Minister O’Cuiv, I am taking it upon myself, as a full-time carer to a high-dependency person, to tell you on behalf of the nation’s carers...

                                                    You make us sick.

                                                                                       Gaia Charis, Carer.

This letter has been sent to Minister O'Cuiv, Brian Cowen, a variety of other politicians, national newspapers, TV, radio and national carers and disability organisations. It is on my own Facebook page and that of Inclusion Ireland's. Please circulate this as widely as possible.