Isolating carers is an own goal for all of us
Paul Scholes’ wealth doesn’t protect him from the worries about his son’s future, but it does enable him to give up paid work without any impact on his family’s financial wellbeing, writes Ruth Hannan
It’s a rare day that many of us feel affinity and empathy with millionaire professional footballers, but Paul Scholes' disclosure of his private struggles to balance paid work and caring for his son with autism changed that.
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Football fans and commentators alike were united in their outpouring of support and admiration for Scholes.
But, for many of us, his description of privately caring for his son whilst trying to maintain paid work was all too familiar.
Scholes' disclosure highlighted how much care is seen as a duty and responsibility, something private, but it also demonstrates the isolation that care creates.
Something we found in our recent work exploring solidarity across care, among those with a relationship to care and/or who were campaigning to change things, was that many felt isolated by the state and society’s attitudes to care.
Whether you are someone providing care or the beneficiary, it is hidden away. Even Scholes’ millions don’t seem to change this.
Many carers will have read the headlines with resignation; people who will already have had to make the challenging decision to give up paid work, or those who are struggling to balance paid work and care.
His description of being dropped as a player from Manchester United’s first team when his son was first diagnosed reveals the ongoing disconnect between paid work and our personal lives. The idea that paid work takes priority when things are happening in our personal lives plays out across all our lives.
I bitterly recall being told by a manager to “just go off sick” during a particularly challenging period looking after my mum, but that would have meant I would have immediately gone on to Statutory Sick Pay (£118 per week).
It is here where Paul Scholes' experience and most of ours diverge.
Currently, 28 per cent of those caring for a family member or friend are living in poverty; this jumps up to 34 per cent for those in receipt of the inadequate Carers Allowance (the benefit carers can claim if they are caring for someone for 35 hours a week and earn less than £196 per week; Carers Allowance is currently £83 per week).
Scholes’ wealth doesn’t protect him from the worries about his son’s future, but it does enable him to give up paid work without any impact on his family’s financial wellbeing.
Most of us are like Scholes and his family; we will all have a relationship to care in our lives, whether as beneficiaries or caregivers (for some, both at the same time). But we are unlikely to have the financial security that they do.
Little has changed in the past 20 years in how carers are supported in paid work or by the social security system; there is an urgent need for this to change. So if you have stood in solidarity with Scholes since his disclosure, consider what difference it would make if you stood in solidarity with those who are making the same decision as Scholes today, tomorrow and the day after.
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Ruth Hannan is a co-founder of Care Full. A lived experience organisation working to centre care in our economy.
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