Policy and Politics
Government cuts 'will penalise grandparents'
The Government's welfare reforms and spending cuts will penalise grandparent carers, says a new report by Grandparents Plus.
More than 200 campaigners for grandparent carers lobby Parliament over cuts to welfare
A survey of more than 250 'family and friends' carers, most of whom are grandparents, revealed concerns that Government cuts will undermine their ability to care for their grandchildren, causing more children to go into care and at a greater cost to taxpayers.
Changes that will affect such carers include cuts in housing benefit, a cap of £26,000 on the total amount of benefit any household can claim, moving people off incapacity benefit to Jobseeker's Allowance, and plans to abolish council tax benefit in 2013.
According to Grandparents Plus, if the 300,000 children who are looked after by 'family and friends' carers were in the care system, it would cost an estimated £12 billion a year.
The survey also found that twothirds of grandparent carers have a household income of less than £300 a week, 88 per cent of carers are aged under 65, and 7 per cent do not receive any kind of benefit or allowance.
To coincide with the publication of its report, What if we said no?, Grandparents Plus organised a lobby day at Parliament last week for more than 200 grandparent carers and their grandchildren.
The campaigners called for protection from the impact of welfare reform and cuts to local authority children's services, a national allowance for family and friends carers who look after a child for more than 28 consecutive days from when the child comes to live with them, and better access to services.
Sarah Wellard, policy and research manager at Grandparents Plus, said, 'Following the lobby, we secured a meeting with the pensions minister Steve Webb, and several MPs in Kent have agreed to meet with grandparent carers in their area.'
Margi Simpson, a grandparent carer who works full time, told Nursery World, 'Being a grandparent carer turns your life around. Many people presume that kinship carers receive the same amount of money and support as foster carers do, but no-one helps us.
'Because I work full time I have had to put my grandchild in nursery, which costs me around £680 a month on top of other costs such as clothes and toys for my grandchild.
'What Grandparents Plus do is fantastic. Not only are they trying to change things in government but also provide lots of support to carers so we don't feel as isolated.'
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