PROBLEMS! GIVE IT BACK FROM WHENCE IT CAME! POSTED BY LAPTOPBOB

Replies

By chi11ed

Re: PROBLEMS! GIVE IT BACK FROM WHENCE IT CAME! POSTED BY LAPTOPBOB
Wed 21 Nov 2007 13:20

Praise Be!!! Someone that thinks the same at last ...and about time. Carers are one of the most forgotten people in the counrty over 6million people having to care for people they love and dote on for a princely sum of £48. I have been landed with a council tax bill of over £1400 as I care for both my parents in different degrees and I'M BASICALLY AT MY WITS END!! With not being able to have a life myself and not being able to get through to anyone that cares.. I'm loaded down with debt and just do not know where to turn next...

TOTALLY AT MY WITS END WITH THE GOVERMENT AND ITS WORSE THAN THE DARK AGES NOW..

By morello

Re: PROBLEMS! GIVE IT BACK FROM WHENCE IT CAME! POSTED BY LAPTOPBOB
Thu 22 Nov 2007 09:11

So true, debt is the worst thing after the lack of life , the lack of money, no heating , no money for bills, yet still the stupid government keep handing out money to the useless local authorities to waste away to their hearts content. One wonders how many of them have met a carer let alone been one. Where is this money soaked up---paying the wages of useless social workers and useless pen pushers,who should be getting off their backsides and doing some good with it. They wouldnt know how, all they care about is their own massive wage and how early they can leave work. Plus of course the thinking up of excuses as to why they are never on the end of the phone when you ring. Favourite one "in a meeting" more like an extended coffee break. When will the government be sending out people to oversee how all these departments are run (or not as the case may be) instead of ignoring the carers and living in the lap of luxury themselves.
Mo

By morello

Re: PROBLEMS! GIVE IT BACK FROM WHENCE IT CAME! POSTED BY LAPTOPBOB
Thu 22 Nov 2007 09:13

PS I thought we were in the dark ages, my mistake, oh no it is the time of slavery isnt it and there is me thinking it was abolished
Mo

By Pysie

Re: PROBLEMS! GIVE IT BACK FROM WHENCE IT CAME! POSTED BY LAPTOPBOB
Thu 22 Nov 2007 21:08

Couldn't agree more. I'm in the same boat as you and many of my friends. Please look at previous messages - mostly in 'Soapbox' - to share the sense of utter despondency and frustration that carers feel.

There are some of us who started our virtual life on this board and have since decided to pool resources and challenge the government. The problem is, we are not allowed to publish details of the relevant web-site on this PRTC site.

I can fully understand why the PRTC has banned the publication of relevant web addresses here. I can also understand how the PRTC is stuck between a rock and a hard stone when it comes to confronting the government head on, simply because it is a charity bound by charity law.

However, the PRTC is dedicated to upholding the care and welfare of carers and, with this aim in mind, I am sure Michele will pass on my own email address to anyone who wishes to join forces with other idependent carers in their fight to get a proper 'new deal' for all of us.

Just send a message through 'contact us' above.

 

By iggibear

Re: PROBLEMS! GIVE IT BACK FROM WHENCE IT CAME! POSTED BY LAPTOPBOB
Thu 22 Nov 2007 21:47

Having just read the other messages on this site I cannot help but cheer that people are finally speaking out and wish to add my own voice. I cannot agree with Mo more who stated that slavery was supposed to have been abolished. What makes me even more furious is that as well as the trivial amount we are paid , if living on income support as I am sure many of you are, what they give with one hand they deduct with the other. I would be happy to add my voice to any pertition. Someone has got to start to take the plight of carers seriously. If we had to be paid seperately a salary for each of the jobs that we do both day and night it would cost a fortune. All we want is a fair deal and a voice that will be heard.

By SocialHeretic

Re: PROBLEMS! GIVE IT BACK FROM WHENCE IT CAME! POSTED BY LAPTOPBOB
Thu 22 Nov 2007 21:57

There are several Carer run forums that see the System as the enemy , with carers used for nothing more than cannon fodder to prop up the whole Social ( Non ) Care part.

For further reading , I post again a link to the longest carer related thread currently on the net , and it was started by an mp to boot !

www.compassonline.org.uk

By eileen

Re: PROBLEMS! GIVE IT BACK FROM WHENCE IT CAME! POSTED BY LAPTOPBOB
Thu 22 Nov 2007 22:23

if you can spare the time read the link posted above it is well worth it

By mrs pan

Re: PROBLEMS! GIVE IT BACK FROM WHENCE IT CAME! POSTED BY LAPTOPBOB
Fri 23 Nov 2007 20:58

I totally agree with SPERANZA and everyone else on this topic. I have been caring for my husband (who has a chronic genetic degenerative condition) for the past 7 years with no help from statutory services at all. When we have asked for help they've offered inappropriate or irrelevant support that is neither use nor ornament just because it's one of their 'cover-all blanket' service provisions and they use the excuse that funding is tight and they haven't got the resources.
Another favourite excuse for them is that I am more the expert in my husbands condition and care needs than any of the professionals! Yet they forget about my needs and if I mention that to them I'm told that his social worker can't help me and if I need help I need to get my own social worker.
As for the Carers Assessment - I had to remind our social services that my current appraisal was 6 months overdue and even when I had it done there are only certain things they will allow me to have so I have to go for the hairdresser option which is fine but even then I don't get any breaks as I have to take my husband with me because he can't be left on his own for long.
This is a 2nd marriage for both of us and we had so many dreams which were shattered when he received his diagnosis and those dreams are now in tatters because we struggle to make ends meet now - I can't even get the Carers Allowance because my health has deteriorated and I'm on Incapacity benefit which does not make me eligible for the carers Allowance. So in effect the government are saying that I'm not healthy enough to work but it's fine for me to care for my husband 24 hrs a day as an unpaid carer.
Like so many others I care for my husband because I love him and again like so many others I didn't choose the option of being an unpaid carer out of choice but because I love him and because he needs me. I feel that the present and previous governments have used our feelings to save billions of punds which they then waste on peripheral expenditure such as decorating MOD office and other government offices and local governments waste on building new council offices, official cars, etc.
I'm all for joing our voices together to be one very loud voice and ensuring that our voices, our thoughts and our needs are heard and met.

By princess140204

Re: PROBLEMS! GIVE IT BACK FROM WHENCE IT CAME! POSTED BY LAPTOPBOB
Sun 25 Nov 2007 20:55

hi just let me know when and where as i would sign anything if it meant we were all recognised and paid better. We struggle too as we are on income support (£163) a fortnight and carers allowance isnt alot on top, for three of us. Especially now as i have too be careful with what i eat as i now have an ulcer and acid reflux due to the stress of caring for my husband and 6 yr old son so shopping is getting more expensive, also cannot go out any more as i have panic attacks but cannot claim for myself as would affect the other benefits and carers allowance.