Did you know the UK government has a national strategy for bees but there isn’t one for the millions of unpaid carers in the country? I had no idea that was the case until my chat with Katy Styles, founder of the We Care Campaign (read her interview here).

Fair enough for the bees, we need to preserve them or they’d be no plants (or planet) and we’d all probably die. It is, however, a total scandal that there isn’t one of us. It is very representative of how ignored, and undervalued unpaid carers are. 8 or 9 millions Brits are suffering, and forced into poverty a lot of the time, while caring for the ones they love because of the woefully lacking social care system and the crumbling National Health Service in the UK.

We tend to forget that carers are people too. That they had (or still have) careers, dreams and aspirations, they are capable, they are resourceful and they are the backbone of society. What happened if we all went on strike? Personally speaking, at a minimum, my grandma wouldn’t eat that day and countless others would die. The insidious truth is that we can’t. Doctors can, and should, keep going on strike for better conditions but we’re the unpaid and unqualified doctors and nurses picking society’s slack everyday, all day. No rest, no breaks, no nothing. Thinking about it, bees also work constantly but they’re part of a community with defined roles for the greater communal good. We do what the state should but doesn’t provide and we’re ignored and downtrodden for it. We’re below bees in that respect too.

Do you know what the National Minimum Wage is in the UK? It is currently £6.56 per hour. If (and it is a big if) you’re entitled to the Carers Allowance, for providing 35 hours a week of care, you can get £76 a week from the government which works out at £1.92 per hour. Be honest; could you live on that if you had to? And you’re going to have to think about it; it is more than likely that at some point in your life, you’re either going to be cared for or providing the care. I’m trying to raise awareness of this issue so that when it does happen to you, being an unpaid carer won’t be as awful as it currently is for us. If you’re wondering what you can after reading this, I have a suggestion that will take 1 minute of your time if you’re in the UK, you can sign this petition to increase the carer’s allowance at the minimum wage: https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/640062

If you’re not in the UK, take 5 minutes to do a quick online search of what you would be entitled to if you had to provide unpaid care for a loved one and how expensive private care is.

Reading this blog also helps, so thank you for getting to the end!