Cameron Attacks Child Carers

Whenever I read or listen to the stories of children who are caring for their parent or parents it brings a lump to my throat, their selflessness cannot be heralded enough.

Not all youngsters go out rioting, looting and taking drugs and getting into gangs and gang warfare, or getting into trouble etc, in fact the vast majority of them don't, but who sings their praises?

Hundreds of thousands of youngsters have to carry the burden of caring for a disabled parent/grandparent, something that should never fall upon their young shoulders. When I read about them or watch them on TV, or listen to them accounting their stories on radio they never ever cease to amaze me. They juggle school and household duties and in many cases are the buffer between psychological support to a mentally ill parent and the outside world, this is something that many adults would grapple to come to terms with, but these youngsters carry on and often all but their own closest friends  do not realise just what an enormous burden they have. Many young carers are left feeling lonely and isolated and unable to communicate with their friends because they are just not sharing the same experiences. Most never complain, they just get on with it and do it, their devotion to the person they are caring for is clear and unwavering and they deserve our thanks and our support and they deserve to have their government sit up and take notice of them, they have earned the right to our utmost respect.

So how does this Tory-led government help repay them?

Welfare secretary Iain Duncan Smith is proposing, to cut benefit payments that will affect that tens of thousands of young carers and will mean that they could be missing out on up to £3.350 per year under brutal benefit changes.

Young Carers and Their Disabled Parents Set To Lose Out on Thousands of Pounds

The Children's Society says:

 That families with young carers looking after disabled parents could lose out through the abolition of the ‘severe disability premium’.

This could leave 25,000 people around £70 a week worse off, reveals The Children’s Society.

The Severe Disability Premium gives additional support to disabled adults who have no one to care for them, or are being looked after by a young carer. This money helps to pay for additional costs of living with a disability, such as housework, preparing meals and travel.

This will increase the already significant pressure on young carers to carry out these vital roles, The Children’s Society argues.

Young carers already lack support within the current benefits system as they are not typically entitled to Carer’s Allowance, despite 13,000 of them providing more than 50 hours of unpaid care each week.   

The introduction of Universal Credit spells the end of this additional support, costing families with a young carer up to £2,876 a year – which could be equivalent to 20 per cent of household income (after housing costs). With the abolition of the Enhanced Disability premium, also proposed, some families with a young carer could lose more than £3,500 a year. 

Bob Reitemeier, Chief Executive of The Children’s Society, said: “These changes will only serve to pile more pressure on children caring for a disabled parent. The Children’s Society believes the government should be making sure the family is supported in the home rather than relying on children to provide care.

“It is wholly inappropriate to withdraw support to families with young carers - especially when the government is not able to tell us how many could be affected.

“These changes will make life much harder than it already is for potentially thousands of vulnerable children. Children frequently tell us that their caring responsibilities affect their education, well-being and futures.”

Has David Cameron forgotten this when he warned councils about cutting funds to young carers? I haven't!

A Day In the Life Of Young Carer Leah - Leah is only 8 years old! (I defy you to read this and not shed a silent useless tear for that child)

Remember this David Cameron?  Yet more evidence of how our prime minister just loves to get good publicity, but this is all it is - publicity! As soon as he was out of the door these youngsters were out of his mind.  Just like the promises David Cameron broke which he made to the parents of disabled children in order to get their votes before the election - they all soon lay in tatters.

Welfare secretary Iain Duncan Smith has done his best to show that he cares but at the end of the day this is all it is "show". Like his boss David Cameron, Duncan Smith never misses an opportunity to show his "caring" side, yet as soon as the photographers have gone and the cameras have stopped rolling, so have they!  Cameron simply forgets and Duncan Smith resumes his attacking the income of the most vulnerable people in our society, quite how Duncan Smith sleeps at night in his big rent free mansion complete with swimming pool and tennis courts in large lush leafy grounds is beyond me. Still what is to be expected from someone that is prepared to take away housing benefit and make families homeless while living in a rent free mansion himself?

For those that say the Tory party hasn't changed I say they have, they have got nastier and uglier and even more dishonest and deceitful!