Labour’s candidate for Bridgwater and West Somerset, Mick Lerry, is promising a Labour government will give more help to unpaid carers who look after members of their families.
Mick said: “Many unpaid carers tell me they feel pushed to breaking point. I’ve lost count of the number of times families say they have to battle all the different services to try to get the support they need. Family carers are twice as likely to be in poor health and one in three has to give up their job or reduce their hours in order to care.
Unpaid carers make a huge contribution
“Often, people aren’t getting help because they don’t see themselves as a carer – they are just a son or daughter, husband or wife, doing what they can to help someone they love”.
“Unpaid carers make a huge contribution to their families and our community and, as family life changes, more and more of us will find ourselves looking after our elderly or disabled relatives. Three in five of us will be an unpaid carer at some point in our lives. It can be tough, so we’ll need a government that’s firmly on our side”
Labour’s Shadow Minister for Care and Older People, Liz Kendall MP, has announced that a Labour government will introduce a new duty on the NHS to identify family carers, so that they can get the right help and support, and give carers a new right to ask for an annual health check.
Families caring for people with the greatest needs will have a single point of contact with care services, so they don’t have to battle different parts of the system and tell their story time and time again.
Labour will abolish the Bedroom Tax
We will abolish the bedroom tax, which hits tens of thousands of carers, and include family carers in the groups who can be eligible for hospital car parking concessions.
Mick said: “Having seen first-hand the difficult job that those who are caring for family members do, in very difficult circumstances, I know that these measures will make a real and practical difference to many families in the constituency”
Mick Lerry, Labour Parliamentary Candidate for Bridgwater and West Somerset
michael.lerry@btinternet.com
07775 905080