Grant success set to help carers.

The five-year grant, awarded under the Big Lottery Fund's 'Advice Plus' programme, is for our CarersLine service which provides advice to over 10,000 carers every year. On average each caller to the line is £24 a week better off as a result of calling CarersLine.

One carer to benefit from CarersLine advice was James Bergman who was finally awarded  a Council Tax discount of 50%, after years of being told incorrectly by his council that he didn't qualify. Thanks to expert help and guidance from CarersLine James was also able to put in a claim for backdating, and got his award backdated 13 years to 1993 resulting in a repayment of over £6,000.  

Thanks to the Big Lottery Funding Carers UK will deliver an integrated, national advice service for carers, professionals and service providers, which will enable carers like James to access welfare benefits, local services and support from other groups and organisations.