Jun/090
Yes, carers get recognition… great, but don’t they need SUPPORT??
Caring is a full time, 24hour job with no breaks, no training schemes, no income except for benefits that don’t add up to much and no emotional support. There is no age restriction to be a career and sometimes it isn’t something you choose to do.
Carers can be children who come from a one parent family with no other siblings to help out. Should these young carers not receive any support? Are they not entitled to enjoy playing out with friends, going to the cinema or even enjoying school with no cares?
Carers need more help so please pledge your support during National Carers Week.
Jun/090
Council Tax bill written off
A man who has severe learning disabilities and cannot read or write had a bankruptcy order filed against him for an unpaid council tax bill of £800. After inheriting the home from his parents and living there up until 2008 without paying any council tax, the council then brought the action against him without first checking to see if he was exempt from paying.
The man sought legal advice and was told this was a breach of the Disability Discrimination Act. After finding the council had indeed breached the mans human rights the court ruled in favour of the defendant by dismissing the bankruptcy order, and made him exempt from ever paying council tax.
Jun/090
Equal Pay
It is now almost 40 years since the introduction of the Equal Pay Act, which was meant to close the gender pay gap.
In 1988 Julie Hayward had a historic victory when she took on her employers Cammel Laird in what was seen as the first significant challenge under the Equal Pay Act. Her case took 10 years and £50,000 of public money, and the GMB her union were triumphant believing that her victory would open the floodgates to similar claims from low paid women.
In spite of the legislation being in force for almost 40 years statistics have identified that across the UK women are still paid on average 17.1% less per hour than men, and 36.6% in the part time sector. The reasons for this are complex and include historical notions about men being the’ breadwinner’ in a family, but this is only a small part of a complex jigsaw.
Local Authorities have known that they have been in breach of the Equal Pay Act by making bonus payments to male employees. As a consequence they made settlement payments to the female staff employed at the time and those that had left within 6 months. Some women who had worked for the Local Authority for many years and came outside this period have not received any compensation.
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