Councillor Susan Lloyd-Selby has asked whether more can be done to help unpaid carers in the Vale of Glamorgan access support after 716 out of 1,949 applications for a £500 unpaid carers grant, accessed through the council, were unsuccessful.
The Welsh Government announced in April 2022 that they were making payments of £500 available to unpaid carers in recognition of the vital role they played during the Covid-19 pandemic.
In summer 2022, unpaid carers who were receiving carers allowance on March 31, 2022 were able to register with their local authority to receive the payment. Payments totalling £616,500 were made in the Vale of Glamorgan.
Councillor Lloyd-Selby asked council officials for the main reasons behind the failed applications.
The Vale of Glamorgan Council’s operational manager for safeguarding and service outcomes, Natasha James, explained that the main reasons were duplicate applications and the individual not receiving the correct carers allowance.
Some applicants submitted their applications multiple times, while others did not qualify for the carers allowance.
In response to this, Councillor Lloyd-Selby said she was interested to understand whether there is more that the council can do to make it easier for people to understand and access their entitlements support.
This is particularly critical for unpaid carers who are often under a considerable degree of financial and emotional pressure.
In September 2022, a number of unpaid carers told the Local Democracy Reporting Service that they had been waiting months to find out whether their application for the grant had been successful.
The council acknowledged over a hundred applications without applicants being told whether or not they had been successful, stating that more information was needed to progress these applications and that they were in the process of contacting the applicants concerned.
»Council seeks solution to unpaid carers grant of £500«
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