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
- 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