P-06-1209 Create a national list of all unpaid carers in Wales, Correspondence – Petitioner to Committee, 21.11.23

I’d like to address the Deputy Ministers point on the verification status of unpaid.

One of Welsh governments main priorities in the National Strategy for Unpaid Carers is the identification of unpaid carers and making improvements around how this happens however, if unpaid carers are going to be expected to verify their status this will in fact have the opposite effect and discourage unpaid carers from self-identifying.

At a recent Carers Wales conference held in Cardiff which the Deputy Minister herself attended, one of the two Unpaid Carer Representative on the Ministerial Advisory Group for Unpaid Carers stated that organisations need to start showing that they trust unpaid carers. By asking people to verify that they are indeed unpaid carers this shows a lack of trust, after all what is there to be gained from claiming to be an unpaid carer when you are not.

I would be interested to hear where the idea of unpaid carers having to verify their caring status has come from.

Companies like Carers Card UK don’t verify whether or not a person signing up for one their cards is being truthful and trust that a person signing up is actually an unpaid carer. At the Cardiff and Vale Unpaid Carers Assembly held at Sophia Gardens Cricket Ground on Monday November 20^th 2023, my colleague and fellow organiser of the event and I were proud to be able to launch a free digital version of the aforementioned Carers Card UK and we will also not be seeking that unpaid carers verify their status. In the continued event of a lack of Welsh Government supported National Unpaid Carers Register we will endeavour to seek out further funding so that we can begin to provided the Carers Card UK card at both a regional and National level

Welsh government wants to earn the trust of unpaid carers, but in this instance they are not showing that they trust us. Trust is a two way street, so if they want our trust they also need to show that they are prepared to trust us.

As an unpaid carer myself I can unequivocally state that there is nothing to gain by falsifying your status as an unpaid carer. No financial gain to be made, no personal gain to be had and no gain for the people we care for.