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Dennis Reed, Director of Silver Voices discusses the challenges faced by unpaid carers over the age of 65. The seminar explores the impact on carers' mental health, reduction in home support, denial of benefits, and the need for better support systems. Join Silver Voices to address these issues.
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WHO CARES FOR THE CARERS? ILG SEMINAR 27 NOVEMBER 2015 Dennis Reed Director Silver Voices
ABOUT SILVER VOICES • New individual membership organisation for senior citizens with a social conscience • Campaigning and lobbying on all issues of concern to senior citizens: current priorities include the social care crisis, dementia care, NHS funding, state pensions and adult safeguarding • Totally web-based organisation sending out regular briefings and campaign links by e-mail • www.silvervoices.co.uk
THE SILENT ARMY • 1.3 million unpaid carers over the age of 65 (2011 Census), many looking after their partners on a full time basis • Number rising very rapidly (up 35% since 2001) • More older people are looking after even older relatives, but sometimes the situation is reversed (it is not uncommon for a woman in her nineties to be looking after a son or daughter in their seventies with dementia) • People with certain conditions (eg Downs) are living longer, putting more pressure on older carers (29,000 adults with a learning disability are living with parents over 70)
THE HUMAN COST • Many older carers are frail and vulnerable themselves • In a Carers UK survey, 92% of older carers admitted that caring has had a negative impact on their mental health, including stress and depression • Carers often report becoming isolated as a result of their caring responsibilities. Half of older carers feel that society does not think about them at all! • But when an individual is forced to give up caring for a family member this can be traumatic and often leads to mental health problems in itself • Home support for carers and those they care for has been drastically reduced by local government cutbacks over the last five years and this trend will continue
THE BENEFITS SWIZ • The average saving to the State made by each unpaid carer is estimated at £18,471 per year (a total contribution by older carers of over £20 billion a year) • And yet older carers are denied the benefits they need to carry on their caring tasks • The main welfare benefit for carers is the carer’s allowance worth some £60 per week to those eligible. But the ‘overlapping benefit’ rule means that carer’s allowance is stopped once the carer starts receiving state pension! • So at the very time when the demands and costs of caring are growing the benefit is withdrawn
WHAT CAN BE DONE? • Assessment of carers’ needs is worthless if eligibility criteria are so tight that no support is provided • It is those carers in the ‘moderate need’ category who are providing the important preventative function which saves state agencies money in the long term • The Carers National Action Plan places far more emphasis on support for young and working age carers, older carers are taken for granted • More precise data needs to be collected on the numbers of older carers and their support needs • The Carer’s Allowance anomaly needs to be resolved • There should be a statutory right for carers to respite breaks
LISTEN TO SENIOR CITIZENS • How often are senior citizens’ issues addressed by senior citizens on national media? • How do local authorities gather senior citizen views, do they rely too much on charities and professionals speaking on behalf of senior citizens • Many cultures value the accumulated wisdom of elders but in our market driven society we are often pushed to the margins of influence • This is what Silver Voices has been set up to address
