Do carers need help to balance their lives?

WITH respect to Tessa Osborne (Letters), I began the conversation about carers because of the political narrative that we all just needed to work harder, alongside hints that pensions and disability benefits would not rise in line with inflation.

What happened 50 years ago is irrelevant today. Many carers are responsible for adult offspring or are kinship carers. What would happen if 6.5 million carers turned over those they look after to hospitals and care homes, or millions quit their jobs because of exhaustion and ill-health? At present, the system doesn’t care if you are working 16 hours a day, seven days a week to keep loved ones clean, fed and safe.

JOANNE COLE, Stockton-on-Tees, Co Durham.

IT’S a pity the care of the elderly has changed from 50 years ago, but there is something cold-hearted in asking why taxpayers should be ‘burdened with paying for what is, essentially, just part of the end of life’ (Letters). The answer should be obvious. Many old folk have devoted a lifetime to caring for us when we weren’t capable of caring for ourselves as babies, or in later life when we were unwell or troubled. Our debt to them all is incalculable. It may sound old-fashioned, but it’s still called duty, honour and respect.

MAURICE BLIGH, Sittingbourne, Kent.

I FOUND your correspondent’s letter hurtful. End-of-life care for a family member is diverse. My 95-year-old mum, for instance, has carers four times a day, but I also call every day and do her washing, ironing, shopping and cleaning. Coping with those and her Alzheimer’s leaves me burnt out every week.