Meeting of the Parliament 26 April 2017
The cabinet secretary knows that that is a matter of choice. The SNP Government—her Government—has taken the choice year on year to cut councils’ budgets. That is a choice—the SNP Government has chosen to penalise councils across the country.
I turn to carers. There is a financial impact on people if they become a carer. One third of carers are struggling to pay utility bills, 47 per cent have been in debt and half are struggling to make ends meet. They cut back on essentials such as food and heating. The main carers benefit is worth just £62.10 for a minimum of 35 hours a week, yet carers’ value to us all is huge. In 2015, a Carers UK report estimated that the value of carers’ contributions in Scotland was £10.8 billion.
In the Scottish Conservative 2016 manifesto we called for carers allowance to be aligned with jobseekers allowance, benefiting 60,000 more people. Carers Scotland agrees with that, and I thank it for its useful briefing ahead of the debate.
Many carers find that their career and promotion opportunities are affected, and that they have to reduce their hours or give up work altogether. Carers who have given up work to care also find it difficult to return to the workplace. Almost a third have been out of the workplace for 10 years or more. A quarter of the carers not currently in work say they would like to return to work, and almost two thirds would like to return when their caring role has ended.
Carers care, and we should care for them. They deserve a break now and then. Providing short break opportunities for carers and those they care for is vital, but the availability and choice of short breaks for carers across Scotland vary considerably. There is growing evidence of significant cuts to existing levels of service provision.
I close by quoting from a briefing sent in by Marie Curie that sums it up:
“Caring for those with long-term illness and coming to the end of life can be all-encompassing. Carers face increasing demands and challenges on their time as the condition of the person they care for deteriorates. Many carers of people with a terminal illness do not see themselves as carers but simply as people looking after loved ones.”
Carers deserve our full support.
15:31