Caring about carers

Monday 12 October 2009 11:39 EDT

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In the UK there are six million unpaid carers for the elderly, sick or disabled, receiving the lowest available government benefits, at just £53.10 a week.

With an ageing population and spiralling private healthcare costs, the government recognises that the problem is set to get worse. It released a recent Green Paper, Shaping the Future of Care Together, which will attempt to overhaul the growing needs of the UK care system for the first time since the 1940s.

Minister of state for care services, Phil Hope, talks to the editor-at-large of Saga Magazine, Emma Soams, about the pros and cons of the proposed initiative in the video broadcast above. Click on the image above to play.

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