A warning: don't give up your job to be an unpaid carer

While governments have always lavished praise on caring, they are less willing to reveal the harsh reality that awaits carers when the person they care for dies, says Peter Beresford
Warm words from policy-makers disguise the fact that there will be little help for carers when things get really tough, says Peter Beresford. Photograph: Alamy

Governments talk up the UK's army of unpaid carers as "unsung heroes". It fits perfectly with the new ministerial jargon of "social capital", "mutuality" and "big society". But individual carers quickly learn what a harsh and lonely road they have to travel. Stalin cynically observed: "One death is a tragedy, a million is a statistic." For carers, perhaps the opposite is true. The estimated 6 million carers can expect warm words from policy-makers, but each knows there will be little help when things get really tough. Instead, it seems that policy-makers are bombarding them with more problems and barriers.

Take Joanna, middle-aged and working class. She has worked all her life while also looking after her mother, who had a long history of mental health problems. When her mother became seriously ill with cancer, Joanna had to give up work as a cleaner to take care of her at home. For the last few weeks of her mother's life she claimed carer's allowance.

After her mother died, Joanna was able to claim carer's allowance for a maximum of eight weeks. Then she had to sign on at the job centre to receive jobseeker's allowance (JSA). She had to prove she is looking for work by keeping a log of all her job hunts, including what newspapers she was checking, what advertisements she had answered and any interviews she had attended. She made desperate efforts to find a job but, it seems, an unskilled middle-aged woman has little attraction for today's dwindling labour market.

In order not to lose her benefit, Joanna had to do two weeks' temporary work in a local shop. A letter from the New Deal said she would be paid to do this at the rate of her JSA. But to work there she also had to pay – from her own pocket – for a uniform skirt and pair of black shoes.

That job ended and Joanna was again looking for work. The jobcentre gave her no help, even though she was under enormous pressure to have one and had given up previous employment, in line with political demands, to be an "active and responsible citizen". Joanna doesn't know how to use a computer, but can't learn at the jobcentre because there are only three over-used machines and at least one is always broken. She no longer heats her flat properly because she can't afford to. And each time she signs on she has to explain again all her efforts to get work.

Is there a moral here? The key one is probably to do what politicians do, not what they say. They may give you a gold star as a carer, but that's about all. Be guided by their actions, not their words. They may talk up voluntarism, but, if you can, you should have a paid job like they do. Most of all, never, never give up a job to be an unpaid carer. It will be terrible for you when the person you care for dies, unless your job is guaranteed to be held open for you.

Peter Beresford is professor of social policy at Brunel University.