Your Say

In this new column, we give readers an opportunity to talk about an issue that matters to them. For Autumn, it’s carer and carer advocate George Helon from Toowoomba, Queensland.

For the past 11 years, I’ve been the full-time primary carer of my ailing mother, who has Lewy Body Dementia (LBD) and is in declining physical health, with severe mobility issues, chronic health conditions and numerous ailments.

I’ve also got my own set of health issues, including a rare genetic disorder, a brain tumour, spinal tumour, mental health issues and I’m close to profoundly deaf.

I receive a Disability Support Pension (DSP) and also receive a Carer Allowance – which is $144.80 a fortnight to look after mum. That works out to about 43 cents an hour.

Every fortnight I find myself having to contribute more and more from my very limited savings and constantly bite into my DSP for mum’s proper upkeep and special needs.

And I’m not the only one in this boat. According to Carers Australia, some 623,742 Australian carers receive a Carer Allowance ($10.34 a day, $72.40 a week, $144.80 a fortnight) and 300,121 receive a Carer Payment ($73.32 a day, $513.25 a week, $1026.50 a fortnight).

To look at it another way, those who receive a Carer Allowance get just 8.91 per cent of the national minimum wage (as set in June 2022) for working four times as much as a paid support worker.

Over the decades, no government has faced the reality of the personal sacrifices and price we pay as carers head-on – the actual human cost – but they’re happy to have us quietly working away in the background for next to nothing, saving them billions of dollars in unpaid care while we suffer physically, mentally, emotionally and financially. Each year, in fact, unpaid informal/primary carers across Australia save the government more than $77.9 billion. And yet we are among the most disadvantaged and vulnerable in the country, living way below the poverty line.

So I acted. Last year, I raised a petition calling on the Prime Minister and the Federal Government to “recognise and care for carers, especially those only in receipt of a Carer Allowance who need immediate, realistic and proper financial recognition”.

I’m calling on all Australians to sign the petition – not just those of us who are already carers, because some day, you might find yourself either needing care or becoming a carer yourself.

To join the 14,000-plus people who’ve already signed, go to change.org/ CarersAustraliaPetition. ACG