Dear Jeremy Hunt, I’d love to get a job. But thanks to your social care crisis, I can’t | Denise Wilkins

I had no other choice but to give up my career to become my mother’s full-time unpaid carer – and there are millions like me

The chancellor, Jeremy Hunt, has been calling for people to get back to work. But there’s one group of people he’s overlooked. Many unpaid family carers like me would love to return to full-time employment. But the failure of successive governments to fix our broken social care system has left us to shoulder caring responsibilities that actively stop us working. We’re trapped.

Since I was 14, I’ve been caring for my mum after she lost her sight in one eye. As her health got worse over the years, I took on more responsibilities. It’s an experience many unpaid carers talk about. The amount of time you spend caring increases until, almost without you noticing, it has become the overwhelming role in your life. Eventually, I had no choice but to give up my job as a chartered accountant to become Mum’s full-time unpaid carer, living with her at our south-east London home.

Denise Wilkins is an unpaid carer and former chartered accountant

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from The Guardian https://ift.tt/x625hUX