We, the undersigned, formally demand that unpaid carers are given the status of "Workers of the state" and are afforded the rights of all other workers:

Name the difference between the role that unpaid carers perform and the role that their private and public sector counterparts perform. You cannot because the roles are the same. But unpaid carers save the UK Government the equivalent of the budgets of the NHS in all 4 UK countries combined (£140Bn per year) without them, health and social care would collapse. The difference between them is that they are not afforded the recognition as "workers" by Government and are therefore denied ALL rights of any other UK worker.

To all those who clap for carers each week. Take note, Carers in the UK were "workfare" victims long before they was workfare and it needs to stop.

They are denied:

The National Minimum Wage
Protection against unlawful deductions from wages
The statutory minimum level of paid holiday
Statutory minimum length of rest breaks
The right to not work more than 48 hours on average per week or to opt-out of this right if they choose
Protection against unlawful discrimination
Statutory Sick Pay
Statutory Maternity Pay
Statutory Paternity Pay
Statutory Adoption Pay
Shared Parental Pay

The UK Government could resolve this tomorrow by changing Carers in the UK to a payroll system.

This is not just about remuneration. It is about how society values carers. One idea which has been floated is a "universal basic income" but for carers, this will not work.

Commercial businesses discriminate against carers daily. Speak to a fulltime carer and they will tell you that they are unable to access basic credit and banking facilities, fair consumer terms and the right not to simply be written off as benefit claimants.

A switch to a "universal basic income" would not solve the inherent issues for carers, businesses would simply classify UBI recipients as the new "benefit claimants" and the discrimination would continue.

This is as much about a payslip and a p60 as it is about income. A

 

By scraping Carers Allowance and Income Support / Universal Credit for carers and transferring them to a proper payroll system, the UK Government could pay carers fair remuneration and deliver them the respect they deserve.

The proposal is simple. Scrap carers allowance and scrap income support / universal credit for carers.

Amalgamate the income from those benefits and the cost savings from the reduction in administration costs for those departments and divert it to proper pay for proper work. 

The existing Governmental payroll systems could be utilised to pay carers a 40-hour contract wage at the minimum wage of £8.21 per hour and taxable. They could use the UK Government payroll, devolved payroll, NHS or even use local authority payroll to achieve this aim.

This would mean carers being paid around £1320 per 4 week period (at current levels). It would then be taxed like any other employee. 

The carers would be given a governmental payslip and p60 which would allow them to access credit, banking and other normal consumer services which are available to all other workers in the UK but would also mean that they would face no discrimination when seeking consumer services because they would finally be classed in the eyes of society as a worker.

50% of the cost would be funded from the current carers allowance payments, income support and other benefits. In addition savings from the administration of those benefits would account for a further 10%.

Tax (like any other wage) would account for another 5-7% and with 20% of their income being paid back to the treasury as VAT and other taxes etc, Over 80% of the entire value of paying them fair remuneration would pay for itself.

What about the other 20%?

Well, there are currently 2 million unpaid full-time carers in the UK. Most of them are in debt and have no disposable income. An additional 2 million people with disposable income which would be suddenly spending in the economy would have the effect of an economic stimulus package. More custom meaning more sales for retail, more sales meaning more jobs in retail, higher demand for consumer products, meaning more production and more jobs. The net result being more taxation received by the treasury on taxes derived from those goods but also in the form on income tax and national insurance from the new jobs which would be created.

Rights of the carers.

As workers of the state, Carers would have the same rights as any other employee and yes, while extending rights such as days off to carers, paid holidays etc means that the Government would have to fund people to stand-in while the carer was off, it would have a net effect of reducing the burden on society as a whole because not only would carers (50% of whom have medical issues resulting from their role as a carer) be healthier but so would the people they care for.

Hypocrites

Each week, Government officials and members of parliaments stand and cheer for carers at their doors. Society, in these trying times, do the same, but for decades the UK Government (and let's call a spade a spade) has built a health and social care system on the backs of unpaid carers. They will not even classify carers allowance as a "benefit" so they can skirt certain rights with respect to benefits and they refuse to classify unpaid carers as the workers they are because it would endow them with rights of every other worker.

Unpaid carers have NOBODY to stand up for them and in all honesty, the UK Population doesn't seem very concerned with them. But with the average unpaid carer working at least 60 hours per week and receiving less than someone on jobseekers allowance, the entire system of carers allowance should be classified for exactly what it is. A state-funded slave labour force which holds individuals rights, hostage, by holding their loved ones to ransom. 

As yourself the question. How does an unpaid carer fight for their rights? They can't do it in court because it costs hundreds of thousands of pounds to do so and ultimately the court would be required to interpret any case within the laws which exist at the moment. Laws are written by the UK Parliament which expressly declares that carers are "less than" their public sector and private sector counterparts.

Unpaid carers can't go on strike, which is why they rely on the rest of society to stand up for them, something which society has continually failed to do. 

It needs to change if anything COVID 19 has shown how valuable unpaid carers are, but if you're not advocating a fair deal for carers, then you are advocating for a slave labour force through acquiescence to the Governments position that carers are "less than" every other employee in the UK today. 

 

Sign this petition - Demand formal recognition of carers as the valued workers for the state and for society as a whole that we all know them to be and demand that the UK Government and Parliament change the system not "when things settle down" and not "at some time in the future" as they have promised for decades. But now!