The Princess Royal Trust for Carers welcomes the announcement by Social Care Minister Ivan Lewis of a review of eligibility criteria and hope that the review will pay particular attention to the impact of unfair assessments on carers, following the release of the Commission for Social Care Inspection Report.The Trust also welcomes that the government has formally accepted that the current system of allowing councils to decide how to ration social care for elderly and disabled people is unfair and inconsistent. Carers have always known this, having been at the sharp end of assessment processes that can seem designed to withhold community care rather than to offer it to those in need. The rules say that disabled and elderly people should be offered a level of support based upon their individual needs, not upon the current availability or cost of services. But too many assessments result in lower offers of support where a family member can be identified to provide care, regardless of the impact on that carer. This means that in some areas carers are feeling forced to take on unacceptably high levels of care that result in them having to give up work, their social life and even their health. To make matters worse, some areas are now threatening major cuts to the voluntary sector services which support those carers to carry on caring.Alex Fox, a spokesperson for The Princess Royal Trust for Carers says, ‘For the system to be made fairer, families must be given accurate information about their rights to support without assumptions being made about the role of carers.
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