Recognising, Valuing and Supporting Unpaid Carers Report

As we shared in the April edition of the Voice, the Standing Committee on Social Policy and Legal Affairs released its Recognising, valuing and supporting unpaid carers report, making a total of 22 recommendations to improve the lives of carers, the services they need, and their involvement in programs and services that affect them. The Committee was unified in its view that ‘carers must be considered as a priority, rather than as adjunct to the needs of the people they care for.’

While it is still early days, this can represent a seismic shift in Australia’s carer policy and we wait to see if the Government will begin its work before making a full response to the Committee’s report. This is particularly important in relation to the Committee’s recommendation that the Government seek legal advice about how best to establish rights for carers by the end of this year.

An Act with a sharper focus

The Committee was forthright in its view that the current Act lacks enforceability, has a narrow focus and contains weak language, recommending that it be amended as a matter of urgency, saying that ‘thirteen years is long enough for Australia’s carers to experience low recognition and its consequences on their interactions with government and the health sector.’ Major changes to the Act include:

• Changing the emphasis from ‘a carer’ to ‘care relationship’ but maintaining a focus on relationships that go beyond what would typically be expected from familial relationships.
• Including carers of people with an alcohol or other drug dependence
• Specific reference to children and young people under the age of 25 who provide care being young carers and Relationships where multiple family members are carers.

Where are carers’ rights?

While recognition is an important feature of carer advocacy, it does not afford carers much in having their voices heard, their needs met or having sustainable care roles. Submissions made to the Committee, including Carers Victoria’s, reflected the consensus that rights for carers is the logical next step.

The Committee agreed, noting ‘it is critical that a set of rights be established for carers’ but didn’t necessarily regard the Recognition Act as the best way to achieve it. It recommended the Government seek legal advice by the end of this year to determine how best to establish rights for carers citing evidence that suggests it may be difficult to introduce rights that do not correspond to international treaties.

Measures to embed practical recognition: financial support, the Carer Gateway, new National Carer Strategy and better data

More than half of the Report’s recommendations focus on practical measures to address the impact of care roles including carers’ decreased workforce participation and impact on retirement savings, the Carer Gateway, the new National Carer Strategy and the data underpinning these as priority areas where practical recognition and support of carers can be achieved.

Financial measures

In recognition that many carers find it challenging to balance employment and their care roles and sometimes need to exit the workforce to care, the Committee recommended that the Australian Government introduce a non-refundable income tax credit for carers returning to the paid workforce. This will likely benefit the many carers aged between 55 and 64 who reduce or exit the workforce to care. This may be a better incentive to return to the workforce for those who are not yet eligible for the Age Pension.

The Committee also supported the idea of providing superannuation accrued during caring. This is currently the focus of a campaign by the national carer network based on modelling which shows paying superannuation to recipients of the Carer Payment will cost less in the long run. The Committee’s support is essential for building consensus among parliamentarians.

Better mental health support and immediate investment in respite

The Committee wants the Government to take immediate action about severe shortage of respite options, saying: ‘the issue is too serious to wait for a review before any action is taken.’ It recommends work be urgently done to identify high-quality, respite care options that are appropriate for a diverse range of carers and the people they care for, including those that require complex care. The Report states:

‘Carers should not need to admit the person they care for or themselves to a hospital emergency department to have a break from caring if they are unable to continue in their role due to the mental and emotional toll of providing care, or if they are injured or otherwise unwell. Similarly, carers should not need to perpetually take on all responsibility for care because they do not trust the quality of the respite care services that are available.’ (page 75).

The Committee also recommended that the Government increase access to ‘high-quality counselling and mental health support options for a diverse range of carers’ in recognition that carers report low wellbeing and much higher rates of social isolation compared to the general population.

The Carer Gateway

The Committee noted mixed feedback about the services and supports available through the Carer Gateway and recommended carers are central to its design. It also provided a roadmap about changing the Gateway to better meet carers’ needs.

The Committee also made specific reference to the structural barriers which will remain for First Nations and culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) carers and recommended that the new National Carer Strategy include targeted support for First Nations and CALD carers with direct funding for community organisations to deliver services in their communities.

The new National Carer Strategy

The Committee’s recommendations about the Strategy reflects its belief that it can be an important vehicle in achieving better outcomes for carers at the same time as aligning to the current government’s priorities. For example, it recommends that gender equality be included as a key priority of the new National Carer Strategy, to be addressed by actions that overcome harmful gender norms and encourage more men to become carers as well as address the financial disadvantages carers experience.

The Strategy, alongside the amended Act, is to be reviewed every five years.

Better data collection designed to reflect the diversity of Australia’s carers

The Committee recommended that the two most prominent and national datasets on carers - Survey of Disability and Carers (SDAC) and the National Carer Wellbeing Survey – be redesigned to be representative of all carers as defined in a revised Act.