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Main Content: Carers UK takes Poverty Charter to Number Ten
A delegation of Carers UK members have been to Number Ten to hand in the Carers Poverty Charter which calls for urgent action to improve carer finances.
Carers UK’s Carers Poverty Charter, launched in May on BBC Breakfast, was delivered to 10 Downing Street by a delegation of carers. One of the carers was Don Brereton, Chair of Carers UK, who said "This Charter sends a message loud and clear to Government. Warm words and promises are not enough - carers need action now to stop them falling into poverty as a result of caring."
The Charter, which will also be delivered to the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats, calls on the government to set out a timetable of action to improve carers' benefits in order to:
- protect carers from falling into poverty or financial hardship
- reflect carers' different circumstances
- help carers to combine caring with paid work and study
- be easy to understand and straightforward to claim.
In the lead up to the handover, the Poverty
Charter received high profile support from The Daily Mirror, the Archbishop of
Canterbury, Oxfam, the Alzheimers Society, the union USDAW, Macmillan Cancer,
Citizens Advice and fifteen other major national charities. The Charter has been signed by 3,000 members of the public, over 200 local carers centres and
groups and a supporting parliamentary motion put down by Paul Burstow MP has
attracted the support of 69 MPs.