Personal finance

Based on the findings from research, this report makes recommendations provide better support for carers. The 12 policy recommendations cover five key themes of financial assistance, employment, identification and support, support networks and technology. Together, the policies together form a covenant for carers. The research looked at who informal carers are and the amount of care they provide, explored the experience of informal carers through two focus groups, and looked at the support available for carers internationally.

This paper reports a welfare rights intervention for carers of dying people through seminars to help them organise family finances to deal with additional costs of the final illness, funeral costs and reconstruction of family finances after death. Seminars on financial affairs were provided to 103 carers and service users, and were evaluated by questionnaires. The seminars were very positively received by attenders, who felt better informed, but were not necessarily more confident in dealing with financial problems.

Growing numbers of older people need help with financial matters, and relatives and friends are likely to be the first involved. At the same time, older people's financial resources are increasingly complex. In some families, differences in expectations or conflicts of interest among different members may bring further complications. A scoping study found a lack of systematic information on the role of carers in helping older people manage money and assets.