Thread by @eagleowl123

So... I arrived for carer's vaccine appointment this morning, fully in line with rules as I have a contract arranged via the council themselves. I was told the rules had changed over the weekend and anyone looking after only one person was no longer eligible.

"You're joking me, right?" I say. No, sympathetically she says she has been told this very morning (it's 0805) that the rules had changed at the weekend and I cannot have the vaccine. I'm not usually lost for words. I manage not to swear (v impressive for me).

I say I am lost for words but can I please see a manager, explaining I am the sole carer for an 88-year-old disabled woman with a heart condition and no vaccination. I plead for an exception. She is kind but firm: I am not eligible but she will fetch a manager.

I explain again to the manager, who takes one look at my contract and immediately confirms that I AM eligible. There IS a rule change, but it relates to people claiming carer's allowance, not to those with a formal contract to care for someone.

So I get that some confusion is inevitable in an operation of this scale, but clearly there are people out there who legitimately booked appointments as carers on the basis of carers' allowance and the rules have changed over the weekend. It will be devastating when they arrive.

People on carers' allowance (a pittance paid only to those with no other income, ie broadly low-income groups) should not be put through this, especially while fit 70s are now piling into centres in their millions. I hope the rules can be relaxed for those with appointments.

And while I'm grateful for getting dose #1, I'm gutted that the housebound and other very vulnerable groups are still waiting in Sussex and prob elsewhere. Appointments are finally being made for the next few weeks but how many people will catch Covid from carers in the meantime?

I am also gutted for any carers who have booked an appointment in good faith and will queue up only to be turned away. This programme is of course amazing and a privilege but is delivering its own injustices in the name of mass figures.

Were you aware of this rule change @alzheimerssoc @DisabilityGovUK @DisRightsUK @Caringforcarer6 ?