Thread by @RachelAdamSmith

#carersweek
A thread

#realcarersweek #unpaidcarers

If unpaid carers are being asked by professionals if they’ve thought about ending their life – then something is clearly wrong about the way unpaid carers are being treated 🧵

When you became an unpaid carer did you realise you might struggle to get breaks, that you’d have to continue to work even when you felt unwell.  Imagine knowing that you wouldn’t get a break from your job, that you had to work every day of the year, 24 hours a day regardless 🧵

The role does not come with any employment rights. We’ve the right to a carers assessment. At first, hopeful this assessment is the answer to our prayers & we will get help. But with a social care crisis worsening daily there’s often no carers to allow are rights to be met 🧵

Many unpaid carers are reduced to being on a low income, applying to charities for grants or having to fundraise for vital equipment that should be provided by the NHS.🧵

We are not just mum or dad (as many professionals like to call us), but skilled workers. We are working more than the legal hours, with no minimum wage and no employment rights.🧵

The Government know we will continue to do it because we are caring for our loved ones. So they’ll continue to ignore the way we are treated and allow others (the media & some of their own MPs) to imply we are in the group of economically inactive. We are not 🧵

Theres no kindness, no attempts to help us, we’re just left battling a system that fails to recognise the impact caring has on our lives & occasionally, mostly in carers week, we get the ‘give yourself a pat on the back for the valuable work that you do, we are very grateful”🧵

What exactly are the government grateful for? Do they have any idea what life is life for unpaid carers and their families? Do they have any idea the poverty many life in, the sacrifice and the hours they work? They are, I suspect just empty words rolled out for #CarersWeek 🧵

They recognise that we are working when it suits them, during the pandemic “key worker” but not when we are fighting for the same employment rights, minimum wage as everyone else, increase in allowance or simply a nights sleep. 🧵

21 years into my caring role & nothing has changed. 30 years since my granddad passed who cares for my grandma with MS & nothing has changed. In all those years what’s improved for unpaid carers ?

Thread from my article written last year
lukeclements.co.uk/it-is-time-to-…