Category Archives: disability

Revealed: the hidden lives of the UK’s 6.5 million carers

August 27, 2015   Carers, disability, family, Featured Article

Caring is an activity most of us will do at some point in our lives but it usually goes on behind lace curtains.

Top photographer Chris Steele-Perkins aims to change that by putting caring into sharp focus in his latest exhibition
Dawn Hart and her twins, Grace and Ethan, who are both severely disabled. Dawn and her husband, Garry, are both full-time carer, as 6.5 million other Britons. Photograph: Chris Steele-Perkins/Magnum

Dawn Hart’s son, Ethan, had only been at home from hospital for six days when he stopped breathing. It was midnight on a Sunday and she was breastfeeding him in bed.

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Carers urged to claim credit to boost state pension

August 10, 2015   Carers, disability, Featured Article

A carer could receive more than £200 extra

Thousands of people with caring responsibilities are missing out on credits they are eligible for which could boost their pension by hundreds of pounds a year.

Currently, only an estimated one in 20 (5%) of those eligible have signed up to receive these additional contributions which will fill gaps in their National Insurance records, the Government said.

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Carers should receive what they’re entitled to

August 10, 2015   Carers, disability, Featured Article

Baroness Altmann

ACROSS Britain, 6.5million people are supporting a loved one who is elderly, disabled or seriously ill.

By Baroness Altmann

This is the country’s wonderful army of carers.

Unpaid and often unrecognised, they play a vital role – not just to the relatives, partners, parents, children, friends or neighbours for whom they care – but for our society.

It is no secret that we are living longer.

People are now surviving for years with illnesses and disabilities which, just a generation or two ago, would have meant an earlier death.

People with such conditions can live life to the full.

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