Lack Of Awareness Of Carers’ Legal Rights

People who care for someone who has physical or learning disabilities or is elderly do have legal employment rights, but often there is a lack of awareness about these, a charity claims.

According to Carers UK, although carers can face discrimination at work, many of the problems that carers face regarding employment can be down to not enough information about their rights.

Under the Work and Families Act 2006 carers have had the same right to legally request flexible working hours as parents.

Kate Groucutt, senior policy officer for Carers UK, said that while discrimination against carers at work is “a big problem”, it is not the only impediment.

“It’s not all about discrimination; there are a lot of employers out there being really supportive and flexible,” she said.

“The other big issue is about the quality of services that are available to help people balance work and care – social services and private sector care services also have an important part to play. But obviously flexibility at work is an important part,” she added.

“We think awareness is still fairly low amongst both carers and employers, so we’d like government to do more on awareness raising…to encourage people to take up their rights, and feel confident in taking up their rights,” she concluded.

There are 2.5 million carers in work in the UK according to the latest figures, which is one in eight employees.