A report on older carers examined their demographics, levels of employment, and the number claiming pension credit, broken down by local area.
Source: Lisa Buckner and Sue Yeandle, Older Carers in the UK, Carers UK (020 7566 7626)
Links: Report
Date: 2005-Dec
A report highlighted the crucial role of paid work for older carers, and in particular the need for an adequate income to make ends meet and help meet the costs of disability and loss of income. It called for more work to be done to ensure that carers were able to juggle work and care, and a reduction in the complexity of claiming carers' benefits, along with other measures to tackle financial hardship among older carers.
Source: Caring and Pensioner Poverty: A report on older carers, employment and benefits, Carers UK (020 7566 7626)
Links: Report | Help the Aged press release
Date: 2005-Dec
A report said that carers knowledge about pensions in general, and the impact of care-giving on pensions in particular, was low.
Source: Hilary Arksey, Peter Kemp, Caroline Glendinning, Inna Kotchetkova and Rosemary Tozer, Carers Aspirations and Decisions around Work and Retirement, Research Report 290, CDS/Department for Work and Pensions (0113 399 4040)
Links: Report | Summary | DWP press release
Date: 2005-Nov
A report examined the extent of informal care, and the implications for policies on worklessness and welfare; the significance of non-working couples and caring responsibilities for welfare to work policy; and the implications for current policies, especially work-focused interview for partners.
Source: Jane Perry, Partners who Care: An evidence paper, Working Paper 24, CDS/Department for Work and Pensions (0113 399 4040)
Links: Working paper
Date: 2005-Nov
A research report said that Scotland was improving its support for unpaid carers, but set out a series of recommendations for further action.
Source: Office for Public Management Ltd, The Future of Unpaid Care in Scotland, Scottish Executive (0131 556 8400)
Links: Report (pdf links) | SE press release
Date: 2005-Sep
A survey found that 50 per cent of young carers (under age 18) were spending over 20 hours a week caring for a sick or disabled relative. 1 in 4 felt their education had been affected as a result of being a young carer.
Source: Our Hidden Heroes, NCH (0845 762 6579) and British Gas
Links: NCH press release
Date: 2005-Aug
A working paper examined three distinguishing features of caring - that it involved the development of a relationship, that caring responsibilities and needs were unequally distributed, and that social norms influenced the allocation of care and caring responsibilities - and drew out their implications for analyzing caring and its movement between unpaid and paid economies.
Source: Susan Himmelweit, Can We Afford (Not) To Care: Prospects and policy, Working Paper 15, Gender Institute/London School of Economics (020 7955 7602)
Links: Working paper (pdf)
Date: 2005-Jul
The government announced that, from 31 October 2005, the regulations relating to work-focused interviews would be amended so that an interview would no longer be a condition of claiming the carer's allowance - and that carers would no longer face a potential sanction for refusing to attend an interview.
Source: Press release 13 June 2005, Carers UK (020 7566 7626)
Links: Carers UK press release
Date: 2005-Jun
A report said that as many as 1 in 10 working men and 1 in 7 working women provided unpaid care, and this number was set to increase with an ageing population, highlighting the critical need for enhanced community care services.
Source: Lisa Buckner and Sue Yeandle, We Care - Do You?, Carers UK (020 7566 7626)
Links: Report (pdf)
Date: 2005-Jun
An article said that the highest proportions of people providing 'informal' unpaid care were found in areas with higher than average levels of deprivation and long-term illness.
Source: Harriet Young, Emily Grundy and Stamatis Kalogirou, 'Who cares? Geographic variation in unpaid caregiving in England and Wales: evidence from the 2001 Census', Population Trends 120, Summer 2005, Office for National Statistics, Palgrave Macmillan (01256 329242)
Links: Article (pdf) | ONS press release (pdf)
Date: 2005-Jun
A think-tank pamphlet identified a "hidden army" of at least 175,000 school-age children who worked caring for family members.
Source: Young Carers, The Education Network (020 7554 2800)
Links: Pamphlet (pdf) | TEN press release | Guardian report
Date: 2005-Apr
The government announced that a fund of 185 million would be allocated to local councils in England in 2005-06 for the carers grant, an increase of 60 million. It also announced that the grant would continue at this new higher level until at least 2008.
Source: Press release 24 February 2005, Department of Health (020 7210 4850)
Links: DH press release | Carers UK press release
Date: 2005-Feb
A new book examined the co-existence of both care and abuse in relationships. 'Discourse analysis' was introduced as a method of investigating relationships, policy and literature in informal care.
Source: Liz Forbat, Talking about Care: Two sides to the story, Policy Press, available from Marston Book Services (01235 465500)
Links: Summary
Date: 2005-Jan
A report examined the issue of carers being forced to cope alone in an emergency. It drew on the stories of some 1,207 carers who described in their own words a crisis situation and how it affected their lives, sometimes with devastating consequences.
Source: Back Me Up: Supporting carers when they need it most, Carers UK (020 7566 7626)
Links: Report (pdf) | Carers UK press release | Community Care report
Date: 2005-Jan