They say ignorance is bliss. They, whoever they are, were right. I shouldn’t have read Carers UK’s report on carer poverty, it made me sad and filled me with rage. Not knowing how to react, my brain decided to make me swear in French (my default rage setting) all the way through reading it.

The report highlighted that:

• 1.2 million unpaid carers live in poverty, and 400,000 live in deep poverty in the UK.
• Two-thirds (67%) of unpaid carers who receive Universal Credit live in poverty – around 900,000 carers.
• The poverty rate is more than double for those providing more than 35 hours of care per week (43%), compared to people who are not unpaid carers (18%).

Merde, c’est pas possible!

We don’t deserve this. Being driven into poverty for providing care the government should is criminally unfair. The words ‘economically inactive’ caught my eye – this insidious wording implies that all the work carers do doesn’t matter. We’re just keeping people alive over here, not making more money for big corporations, so we don’t matter. The (literally) vital work most of us don’t want to do doesn’t deserve compensation.

Putain de merde!

We’re forced into a kind of caring servitude that can ruin lives. Think I’m being dramatic? Let’s look at the facts:

• We are not paid for our work – some of us can claim the Carers’ Allowance of £81.90 per week. You try living off that.
• Our labour is forced – we do it because we have to, not because we want to.
• We’re not free to leave- if we do, the people we care for will most likely die.
• We’re on call 24/7 – no breaks, weekends or holidays.

Sounds like servitude to me, non? The government is, at the very least, enabling this situation. And nobody cares, because it is easier not to think about it and nobody wants to believe they are at risk of becoming an unpaid carer.

Incidentally, if we called our situation ‘carer servitude’ rather than the more gentle ‘unpaid carer’, we might get a bit more attention. Even if it was to say we’re exaggerating , it would at least start a debate.

I’ll leave you with Jane’s words in the report:

‘I am working really hard, harder than most people work three
times the jobs that they’re doing in the hours. So why can’t we just be recognised for that. I’m unable to work because of my caring role.
So pay me a wage. If I could go to work, I would, but I can’t. Economically inactive. I’d like to see them try and do what we do…‘

P.S: Notice I didn’t say ‘sacré bleu‘ – no French person says that, not even ironically.