YOUR article on carers in last week's Fulham & Hammersmith Chronicle, Meet the Unsung Heroes, was touching.
But it proved how unfair this country is in its treatment of those who are prepared to make the sacrifice to look after relatives and loved ones.
Carers save the state billions every year, but what they are offered in return is derisory. According to the latest figures, a carer can receive £53.10 a week, but on its own website (www.direct.gov.uk/en/CaringForSo meone) it declares: "This is reduced by the amount of certain other benefits, including state pension, that you receive.
If you receive certain other benefits at £53.10 or more a week." It gets worse: "If you are in full-time education with 21 hours or more a week of supervised study or earn more than £95 a week after certain deductions have been made, for example, Income Tax."
So, if you are prepared to give up everything to care for your mother, wife, husband or child, you will be penalised if you try to earn a living wage.
I looked after my mother 24 hours a day in West Kensington until her death in 2004. However, because I could work from home, I could not claim one penny for all that time, even though I gave up a full-time job.
The choice was mine - but the only ones to gain financially were the local authority and the Government. I dread to think how carers are coping with the charges this Council is now imposing for assistance.
It is appalling that this government, which has been able to find billions for unjust wars and unethical bankers, has still found it beyond itself to provide carers with a proper reward for their selfless devotion.
One wonders when this issue will ever be properly addressed by a Parliament whose members have been more concerned with feathering their own first and second nests.
MICHAEL GANNON
Sun Road West Kensington
