You can view the letter and signatures, along with the complete collection of “Virtual Protest” photos here.

Dear Prime Minister,
Unpaid carers save the country a fortune yet many struggle without support.
I want your new government to deliver a better deal for carers. I want carers to get a decent income and practical support when they need it.

In addition to the signatures to the letter we also have hundreds of photos from you who took part in our “Virtual protest”.

In June during Carers Week we’ll take some carers to Number 10 to hand over your messages. The message of this year’s Carers Week is ” a life of my own” – which is summed up so well by this carer. Doreen is part of a carers forum run by the Carers Contact Centre in Telford and Wrekin. Thanks to them for sending such brilliant photos. You can see more  of their powerful messages at at www.flickr.com/photos/carersprotest/

Last week the government increased Carer’s Allowance for the half a million people who claim the benefit (5.5 million carers don’t get Carer’s Allowance). The payrise was….. 80 pence.  It’s now worth £53.90 per week.  Unlike all other benefits in return for Carer’s Allowance people must commit to work 35 hours a week caring. Of course many people are caring much longer hours than that.

In this photo the carer knows the value of his care is £800 per week. That’s what it would cost his local council to provide the care if he weren’t there.  Imagine knowing that your efforts have a cash value of £800 but in fact you are being paid just under 7% of that – £54 a week.

That’s why it has to change. Join our campaign and say It’s time to support carers.

www.carersuk.org/Newsandcampaigns/Itstime

This photo is Carol and Sandra from Leicestershire carers. They’re making a point about working carers. Over half of all carers are in some sort of paid work. That’s over 3 million people juggling a paid job with their caring responsibilities – not an easy job. Many people end up going part-time and sadly many leave paid work altogether – they simply can’t get the support they need to carry on.

If you care for someone for more than 35 hours a week you can get a benefit called Carer’s Allowance – worth about £54 a week. However if during the other 133 hours of the week you’re in paid work then you’ll come up against something called the Carer’s Allowance “earnings limit”. This is currently £100 a week. At minimum wage that means you can work about 17 hours a week. But if you got a tiny pay rise and found you were suddenly earning £101 a week then you lose the entire benefit.

Carers UK wants the government to stop making life difficult for working carers. Paid work’s not just about money, it’s about keeping contact with the outside world and having a life of your own. The benefit’s system should recognise that many people are doing a balancing act and that caring brings extra financial costs.

If you want to see a better deal for those people who juggle work with care,  and for all those people who simply can’t get out to work because of their caring responsibilities – then join our campaign and tell the next government it’s time to support carers.

There are over 1 million people in the UK who look after more than one person. But you can only get one payment of Carer’s Allowance so you have to choose which person to claim for. Also you can’t combine the hours you spend caring for different people so you could be caring 60 hours a week (30 hours each for 2 people) but still not get the benefit as you don’t meet the “one person for 35 hours” rule.

The government has started to realise that caring is complex. The new Carers Credit for example will protect the State Pension for carers who look after more than one person. This is a good start but we think that the benefit system should recognise different caring situations and reflect the fact that some people care for more than one person. If you agree then join our campaign and tell the next government it’s time to support carers.

This contribution shows just how many different things carers need to function properly. That’s why sorting out carers problems is never going to involve fixing just one easy thing.

Increasing benefits for carers would be a welcome start that would help hundreds of thousands of the most needy carers. But what if your local day centre is closed down and you rely on it for a break.  Or if you work full time and need a bit more flexibility from your boss.

This photo captures some of the complicated relationships that carers have and some of the many things they need to help them.

Joyce is a carer from Kendal in Cumbria. She makes a very important point. Government consider Carer’s Allowance to be an “income replacement” benefit that acknowledges that carers have restrictions on their ability to work full time. When you get a State Pension they say that is the same sort of “benefit” and you cannot have both. They call this the “Overlapping” benefit rule.  For carers like Joyce what this means in practice is that the minute they start to draw to draw their State Pension they lose their Carer’s Allowance.  But of course the caring doesn’t stop.  Yet another example of how unfairly carers feel treated by a system that is no longer fit for purpose.

If you haven’t already please sign our letter to the next Prime Minister.

This photo has come in from carers in Wales. Jim is the carer on the left and he  says “I prop up the NHS – who props me up?” It’s a fair question.

Yesterday the Office for National Statistics (ONS) reported that unpaid carers were amongst the 8 million people in the UK who are “economically inactive”.  What is a dry statistical category for the ONS can become a loaded phrase in the hands of certain newspapers which like to imply some people are a “drain” on society. Yet as this sign says without the work of the UK’s 6 million carers the NHS simply wouldn’t cope.

The work carried out by unpaid carers (and yes it is work) would cost £87 Billion to replace if every carer in the UK decided they couldn’t carry on. When you think about that figure it hardly seems fair to class carers as “inactive”.

As Dave (the carer on the right) says in his sign – “Carers want to be valued for the service they give to society” With Carer’s Allowance being so low and carers having to battle and fight for the services out there, many families will tell you society doesn’t value the care they provide at all.

Warm words are often said about the UK’s six million carers. They are called the “Hidden army” and “Unsung Heroes”.  Carers are not any of these things. They are people, regular people doing the best by the people they love and care about.

1 in 8 people are caring for somebody else. That means there are carers in your street, in your workplace, at your place of worship or down your local pub. Caring is something that will happen to most of us in our life. If you’re a woman it’s more likely it’ll happen than if you’re a man. It can be tough, it can be rewarding. It’s part of life.

So whilst it’s nice if carers are thanked and appreciated for the £87 Billion they contribute to our economy, many carers are sick of pats on the head and warm words. They want action. Real tangible benefits that will improve their lives now. Not in years to come but now, when they need it most.

Carers are of course unpaid – so strictly speaking they don’t get “Pay”. However they can get Carer’s Allowance but this is the lowest benefit of it’s kind. To qualify you have to agree to care for at least 35 hours a week (most do more) and in return you get £53 a week, well below the minimum wage.