This campaign has now closed
The CarersLine is the expert free national helpline providing expert advice on carers’ benefits, local services and support. In the last financial year 26,000 calls were made to the CarersLine with approximately 1,300 advice emails and letters received and these were handled by a staff team of 2 and a half advice workers. Last year 70,000 calls went unanswered. Carers still cite information as one of the most important things to them and having access to good quality free advice and information such as the CarersLine provides can help a carer carry on caring for longer.
Categories
Beneficiaries
Situation
"My wife tripped over a kerb and hit her head on the pavement which caused paralysis from the neck down. She now needs 24 hour care, "who'd have thought that my life would literally be turned upsidedown in a minute" Bob, carer. Every day 6,000 people start providing care for family, friends or partners who are ill, frail or have a disability. They often become carers out of the blue, with no idea of what help is available and how it will impact on their health, financial situation and daily lives. Every year we need to raise donations from voluntary sources such as companies, individuals and charitable trusts to run this vital resource. Although we are fortunate to have received a lottery grant for 5 years which has been a relief, it by no means safeguards the CarersLine as it is dependent on our ability to raise the balance of funds before they will release the grant. A freephone service such as this is very costly to run and it currently costs over £183,302 per year. At the moment we are only able to run the line 2 days a week, so many calls go unanswered. A donation of £85,535 will ensure that the costs were fully covered for this financial year. A donation of £493,352 would ensure that this service can run 5 days a week for 3 years helping up to 100,000 carers to carry on caring during this period. Whether we receive funding to match-fund the lottery funding, or funding to increase the service, it would provide our CarersLine with stability and help us to ensure that we are there if you need us and you have a one in seven chance that you will.