Does current legislation do enough to protect the rights of the UK's millions of unpaid carers? asks Rona Epstein
In the 2001 census, 5.2 million people in and identified themselves as providing unpaid care to support family members, friends, neighbours or others because of long-term physical or mental ill-health, disability or old age. That represented nearly 10% of the population, and of those, 21% (1.09 million) provided care for 50 or more hours per week. This unpaid work has been valued at £87bn a year.
BACKGROUND
The Carers (Recognition and Services) Act 1995 (C(RS)A 1995) provided that when a local authority assesses someone’s needs for community care services or the needs of a disabled child, a person who provides/ intends to provide substantial regular care for that person has the right to request an assessment of his ability to provide and to continue to provide care. The authority must take that assessment into account when making any decision about services for the cared-for person or to meet the needs
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