While governments have always lavished praise on caring, they are less willing to reveal the harsh reality that awaits carers when the person they care for dies, says Peter Beresford

Warm words from policy-makers disguise the fact that there will be little help for carers when things get really tough, says Peter Beresford.
Governments talk up the UK’s army of unpaid carers as “unsung heroes”. It fits perfectly with the new ministerial jargon of “social capital”, “mutuality” and “big society”. But individual carers quickly learn what a harsh and lonely road they have to travel. Stalin cynically observed: “One death is a tragedy, a million is a statistic.” For carers, perhaps the opposite is true. The estimated 6 million carers can expect warm words from policy-makers, but each knows there will be little help when things get really tough. Instead, it seems that policy-makers are bombarding them with more problems and barriers.

Take Joanna, middle-aged and working class. She has worked all her life while also looking after her mother, who had a long history of mental health problems. When her mother became seriously ill with cancer, Joanna had to give up work as a cleaner to take care of her at home. For the last few weeks of her mother’s life she claimed carer’s allowance.

After her mother died, Joanna was able to claim carer’s allowance for a maximum of eight weeks. Then she had to sign on at the job centre to receive jobseeker’s allowance (JSA). She had to prove she is looking for work by keeping a log of all her job hunts, including what newspapers she was checking, what advertisements she had answered and any interviews she had attended. She made desperate efforts to find a job but, it seems, an unskilled middle-aged woman has little attraction for today’s dwindling labour market.

In order not to lose her benefit, Joanna had to do two weeks’ temporary work in a local shop. A letter from the New Deal said she would be paid to do this at the rate of her JSA. But to work there she also had to pay – from her own pocket – for a uniform skirt and pair of black shoes.