For decades carers have been lauded but not heard, praised but not rewarded. 

Successive governments have hailed carers as heroes. Party leaders and MPs have eagerly turned up for photoshoots with world-wearied carers and proceeded to trot out the lines of “unsung heroes” “saving the country millions in care costs.” 

But then comes the inevitable walk-away. Photo-op done, issue forgotten about.

So let’s change the narrative. Let’s talk about the issues that really matter to carers and let’s campaign for a revolution in how carers are treated, supported and financially rewarded in a socially just Britain in the 21st century.

Carers and the disabled or elderly person(s) they care for need to be treated not as stand-alone individuals but with needs that are linked — a holistic approach. 

We need to join up GPs, hospitals and social services with a care and support package for both the receiving care and the carer. 

The current swathes of red tape concerning disability living allowance and the new personal independence payment present a maze of confusion for any carer attempting to negotiate the system. 

A GP assessment of the person being cared for alongside the carer and a referral to social services where the carer’s needs are assessed would be a good starting point, so that carers are treated with respect and dignity. 

Social services can provide support on caring for the disabled/elderly person, advice on respite breaks and also support carers when the going gets tough.

Carers may have to cope with a whole lifetime on carer’s allowance if they have a child born with disabilities, for example. Or if they are caring for someone with a degenerative illness they may find they have to give up their job suddenly and take on a full-time caring role. 

Current rules mean that over-16s can only claim carer’s allowance at the derisory rate of £61.25 a week if they are caring for a person for more than 35 hours per week.  

Some carers support more than one person with a disability, yet receive the same pitiful £61.25 a week whether caring for one person or three. This needs a radical rethink. 

Even more disgracefully, young carers under 16 — and there are currently 700,000 of them in the UK — receive £0. Most, if not all, are juggling school with caring responsibilities. 

How is that deemed acceptable in 21st century Britain? 

No child should be caring for a parent or relative alone, yet this supposedly civilised country expects them to. Not only do we expect them to, but we also expect them to do it for nothing.

The whole system of carer’s allowance is archaic, unreasonable and not fit for purpose yet no government seems keen to tackle it. 

There are seven million disabled people in the UK. There are 6.5 million carers. 

Even on a cynical basis, why has no political party stopped to think about the number of votes it could potentially gain if it reached out to both?

Some carers may feel able to juggle caring with paid employment. 

Yet straight away the DWP imposes strict rules for daring to do so. If you earn 1p over the permitted £100 a week, your carer’s allowance is stopped completely.  

This has huge financial implications and becomes a game of cat and mouse with employers. 

I recently spoke to a cleaner at a nursing home, who was balancing caring for her elderly mum with Alzheimer’s with a part-time cleaning job. 

As Mum lived with her, she wanted the job to give her some independence and time for herself and to earn some much-needed cash. 

She had arranged with social services for Mum to go to a day-care centre from 9am to 2pm for three days a week. 

Her employer was incredibly supportive and asked her to consider working more hours as she is a good conscientious worker. 

However although she would love to take her employer up on the offer, she cannot or she will lose her carer’s allowance for breaching the £100-a-week rule.

This is a totally unfair and unjust DWP policy and one that needs changing now. 

Carers who work are more often than not working in either a menial minimum wage job or trying to scrabble a few pennies together perhaps by becoming self-employed. 

I know because, as a parent of an autistic son, I worked as a self-employed sales rep myself. The pay is pitiful and it takes a lot of effort and expenditure on petrol to do your sales round. 

There are many carers trapped in a life of poverty simply due to caring for disabled relatives. 

It is time to actually face up to the fact that carers have talents other than caring. 

Our choices have been taken away, often overnight, and careers halted and aspirations crushed. 

Again let’s campaign to get this old narrative changed. If carers have the sheer will and guts to juggle caring with work let’s financially reward their efforts, do away with this ludicrous limit on £100 a week and help carers as much as we can. 

Carers are being broken under the current system — these heroes who save the country millions every year in care costs. 

The forgotten heroes. Let’s fight for a system that encourages their talents and aspirations and acknowledges the huge burden of caring responsibilities.

We need a new system that has an inbuilt safeguard of GP and social services assessments and that pays carers a realistic amount in carer’s allowance. 

I would boldly propose at least minimum wage and moving to a living wage, but I think a realistic starting point would be to raise carer’s allowance to a basic £100 a week with annual reviews and campaigning to progress to a decent level of payment. Once the bureaucracy is simplified, this is a realistic proposal.

So stop the empty rhetoric, the half-hearted sympathy. Carers do not want your sympathy. 

They want a government that recognises their value, rewards their hard work, and gives them avenues out of poverty without punishing them. Not too much to ask, surely? 

Bernadette Horton blogs at mumvausterity.blogspot.co.uk.