Carers Trust responds to the Chancellor's statement on public spending
Responding to today's statement by the Chancellor on public spending, Carers Trust's Director of Policy and Public Affairs, Dominic Carter, said:
"Today the Chancellor Rachel Reeves outlined the shortfall in funding facing the new Government, noting that it has created a £20 billion ‘black hole’ in public spending."
"What we didn’t hear about, however, was how much larger still this black hole would be if unpaid carers weren’t continuing to save the state billions every week by propping up our broken social care system."
"The new Government must not repeat the mistakes of its predecessors by continuing to ignore unpaid carers. It must do more to support both carers themselves and the local support organisations that support them."
"With millions of carers pushed beyond breaking point by successive governments’ failure to fix social care funding, the problem of exhausted unpaid carers is far too big to ignore."
"With the ending of the universal winter fuel payments and the potential termination of the Household Support Fund, far too many carers are likely to face even greater hardship in the coming months."
"The new Government must explore a better offer for carers and in the upcoming budget acknowledge their vital role in our economy and health system."