Listening to Chichester’s Carers

Last week I sat down with carers from across Chichester constituency. I was invited by Carers Support West Sussex, an organisation that helps over 30,000 registered carers, including more than 3,700 in Chichester.

Having met with Carers Support West Sussex before, they kindly facilitated 20 carers, with different caring responsibilities, to help me understand what matters to them, where they feel ignored, and what needs to be done to improve their experience.

Jess meeting Carers Support West Sussex

Caring can be a lifelong commitment or a sudden responsibility. Whether the carers I spoke to were providing care to a parent, a partner or a child, they all shared the same sense of invisibility, of exhaustion, of their own inability to care for themselves effectively.

The Liberal Democrats’ position on care is one of the reasons I first joined the party. Our leader, Sir Ed Davey, is a tireless advocate for family carers, having been one himself; caring for his terminally ill mother as a child, then for his profoundly disabled son years later.

Carers deserve a fair deal. One that provides an expanded Carer’s Allowance, a statutory respite break for unpaid carers, and paid carers’ leave. But the Government seems incapable of recognising this. Despite the enormous stealth tax rises in the budget, no additional support was provided for carers, and the cross-party talks on the future of social care have been incredibly slow to come to fruition.

Despite the immense service and sacrifice they provide, many of the carers I met felt a dire lack of support for what they do, whether that be training, financial assistance, or help with their own mental health. These individuals are saving our health system billions, by caring for people in extremely difficult circumstances. Yet many felt the system was deaf to their concerns.

Another issue we discussed on the day was the “cliff-edge” Carer’s Allowance that has affected so many, where individuals who earned just £1 over the allowance limit would lose the full sum. Some people were unaware of their minor transgression and were subsequently chased by the DWP for the money back. I wrote to the Secretary of State earlier this year, calling on the Government to stop pursuing these historic overpayments. It is therefore welcome to see the Government last week accept that the system had failed and promise to reassess over 140,000 cases where things had gone wrong. I wait to see if this produces better outcomes for carers in the future.

Everyone deserves high-quality care when they need it, and it is within the Governments interest to support this. By fixing the back door and providing a functioning social care system, pressure is taken away from acute care in hospitals. This change requires the government to finally listen to the needs of carers.

If you live in West Sussex and provide care to an individual, please get in touch with Carers Support West Sussex on 0300 028 8888 or email info@carerssupport.org.uk