July 2021 – Applied Imagination Journey

Carers and The Law: In conversation with Sebastian Montague

Carers & the law, a conversation with law/BAR student, Sebastian Montague

As part of my research in the subject of carers, I decided to interview Sebastian Montague, a law student with experience in welfare, immigration and benefits law to discuss the topic of carers and legislature.

Here are some of the questions discussed throughout the interview:

What do you understand as carers?
Do you think carers are treated fairly by the government? What I mean by this is, do you think they have access to enough support or benefits? Carer’s allowance, care package, benefits*
Would you say that, to some degree, they are invisible?
Can you give me an example in which you have been involved in a case on the carers side?
What do you think are some of the challenges carers might face today?
What are some of the solutions that you think are needed or could be introduced to improve such situations?
How do you think covid-19 has magnified some of the carer’s key problems?*
Why do you think it’s important to hear carer’s stories?
Finally, my project involves reporting their own stories along with photographs of different carers, from young to old, to showcase the diversity and highlight the importance of their work – do you think this project is of relevance? In other ways, do you think highlighting the work that these people do is necessary?

Observation:

During the conversation some very interesting comments stood out, for example: the idea that caring should*, to some degree, be recognised or seen as a job even if considered legally unpaid – it’s still time-consuming for someone who’s working over 35 hours a week looking after someone; in any other work-related scenario that would be a full-time job – so why is it that in a socio-familial setting it is expected to be treated as if it’s not? To what extend does that feed into the social stigma, guilt and embarrassment that some carers feel with the label of what they do?

Furthermore, it came up that one of the biggest stresses is the allowance that the carers get; and how such is directly linked to the person they are caring for. So as an example, if the person they are caring for has a disability allowance this means the carer is elegible for carers allowance however, if the person they would be caring for is not getting benefits then the carer may not be able to apply for carers allowance. It could be argued that the carer is seen, in the eyes of the government, as an extension of the person they are taking care of and not so much as their own person.

Further research will be done in this observation exploring the terms of quality of life, welfare state and what it means to be a person. And the role of identity in full-time care.

Key words identified as solutions during the conversation about carers were: awareness, social stigma, financial hardship, social exclusion, culture

People that I have gotten in touch with to explore the topic further:

Eurocarers: Contact

Homepage

Carers UK

Interview or have a call with Robin Allen (new rights to 2.5 million people in Britain who combine paid work with the responsibilities of caring)
LUÍS MIGUEL POIARES PESSOA MADURO (Ex-general advocate in European Court)landmark ruling in the European court, discrimation against a woman who was a carer for her deaf child.
Health and Social Care Secretary Sajid Javid

Media – Carers

https://www.carersuk.org/wales/news-campaigns/carers-wales-photography-competition/carers-wales-photography-competition-2020-winners

We Care Too

https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/gallery/2020/aug/28/snapshot-of-a-strange-year-portrait-of-britain-2020-in-pictures

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3J6urFp8YZ0

She is his sexuality. 0:28 his sexuality is his cross to bear, a part of himself that is a burden to be carried never to be embraced. Throughout part 1 he struggles with his sexuality. At the end he rejects her, and he and the piece of himself he has rejected are both dying. Beginning part 2, she approaches him and he is ready to be destroyed by her, but instead discovers that the thing he was sure would destroy him instead lifts him up, and he learns to recognize and embrace the piece of himself. 3:49 He becomes a champion of this cross he was sure would crush him. In the end, although there is great pain in this admittance, he finds salvation in accepting his sexuality.

The Act of Care

Being a carer has always been an existing role, in different tribes at different times. At times, people have been carers without even knowing so. While being a carer is no easy task, it is often something we can undertake love and little experience as our motivations come from a good place at heart. However, there is a difference between occasional care that does not alter an individual’s lifestyle and long-term, heavy-duty care in which the individual providing the care must make some sacrifices in order to have available time for several time-consuming tasks.

Again, caring and sacrifice feel like opposing words, as if caring was a drain, or it made one give up other things – such can signify a sense of guiltiness from the individual’s perspective as of course, collectively, we understand, caring comes from love, community and sometimes, as a natural cycle of life responsibility.

So why is the study of care such a complex topic? Well, it is because of a wobbly ground involving multiple mixed emotions, often conflicting ones. It’s not only wellbeing the main focus but the legal side of the subject matter, and also, the human rights that come with it – finally, to equate fairness in all citizens (in whatever scale that is achievable), it is important to first recognise the act of caring, mostly an unpaid task, as an alteration of an individual’s lifestyle and therefore, we must have a closer look at the individual’s quality of life landscape.

For instance, if the individual’s mother is sick, they have to give up their job abroad to move home and look after her, what consequences will come with that? Will the individual feel isolated? Will the individual give up exciting job prospects or will they be offered the flexibility of remote working in the time being? Will the individual get some financial support? Is the individual remotely qualified to be able to look after their sick mum and if not, how can they become a bit prepared to face such a journey? There are many alterations to the individual’s life all at once, and while the individual’s motive is wholesome, we must still acknowledge that it is affecting the individual’s life, regardless of their sense of duty.

Further thoughts in the study of caring involve the lack of recognition and praise these individual’s get, and again, while the motivations come from personal responsibilities and familial sense of priority, it is important to highlight the relevance of these unseen heroes’ work. And find ways in which we can celebrate the existence of these people, who undertake such roles that bring such alterations to their life, whether they choose to do this out of choice or not.