News

Social Platform was invited to the European Parliament interest group on carers on Tuesday October 15 by Marian Harkin MEP, chair of this interest group, to discuss an EU strategy on carers.

Informal and family care is a largely ignored sector of the economy and invisible to policy makers. Approximately 80% of all care across the EU is given by family carers. They are currently some 19 million informal care givers in Europe.

Pierre Baussand, Director of Social Platform, highlighted key issues relative to carers' situations.

Nowadays an overwhelming majority of carers are women. They represent about 80% of carers. This is a clear infringement of the equality between men and women legislation, and it prevents women from achieving their full human development potential.

The effects of the crisis and austerity measures have dramatically affected carers in the past few years. The crisis has worsened the social situation of many people: more and more of them have been in the need of care while at the same time, numerous cuts have been made on many supports such as disability benefit,  child benefit and pension reforms.

First carers should be recognized and supported through legislative measures such as more flexible working time arrangements.

But the future should not rely on informal care. We need more social protection. Public policies should urgently give people more independence, for example by reducing the high cost of the health system or facilitating the accessibility of housing.

This phenomenon is actually occurring in all member states. Therefore it becomes a European issue and an EU level answer should be given.