Author: davepickering

Edinburgh reporter and photographer

New benefit for teenage carers to launch in autumn

Young carers in Scotland aged 16 to 18 could benefit from a new £300 social security payment.

The Young Carer Grant is the first of its kind in the UK. It will be available to 16, 17 and 18 year olds who help care for someone in receipt of a certain type of disability benefit. The payment will be introduced this autumn.

Following feedback from young carers, eligiblity is being widened to include all 18-year-olds, not just those in education.

In a further another extension of the policy, young carers will now also be able to combine the hours they spend caring for more than one eligible person in order to reach the 16 hours a week requirement.

Young carers will also be able to take respite weeks without this impacting upon their application.

Social Security Secretary Shirley-Anne Somerville said: “We are using our new social security powers to recognise the extraordinary contribution young carers make to the lives of those they care for.

“This is the first time young carers aged 16 to 18 will be given a cash benefit to spend as they choose. We will be making these payments at what could be a pivotal stage in their lives – when they may be finishing school, looking for employment or starting further education or training.

“Young carers make an invaluable contribution to society but many have difficulty participating in the normal activities their peers can enjoy. The Young Carer Grant will help ensure they are treated with the dignity, fairness and respect they deserve.”

The Scottish Government is investing £600,000 to support nearly 2000 young carers in 2019/20.

The Young Carer Grant will open for applications in autumn this year and applications can be made online, over the phone or by post.

 

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700 more jobs to go at Centrica

Scottish Gas owner Centrica plans to cut around 700 management and back office jobs under previously announced reductions as it faces “growing challenges,” the company announced this week.

The company said staff had been informed about the job losses, which are part of its ‘ongoing transformation’.

A Centrica spokesman said: “This difficult decision was made because we need to respond to the growing challenges we face. The energy market is going through continued rapid change, competition is fierce, our energy customers are leaving us and we’re operating under a price cap.

“Over the next 45 days, as part of a full consultation process, we will discuss the proposals and seek the views of employees and their representatives.”

Responding to the latest round of job cuts in Centrica, GMB Scotland Organiser Hazel Nolan said: “It’s the continued collapse of a once great British institution ahead of what will surely be a set of disastrous results next month.

“Iain Conn (Centrca’s CEO) is battling to save his skin on the back of a loyal workforce – thousands of livelihoods have already been lost and thousands more will pay the price for Conn’s rotten leadership.

“Let’s be clear that without intervention, sooner or later Scotland will suffer more pain; we expect a continued wave of cuts in the months to come and that’s more bad news for the fragile Scottish economy

“Iain Conn cannot keep cutting his way out of a crisis, Centrica will have to come forward with a credible recovery plan that reverses years of customer decline, defends jobs and works for the public interest.”

UNISON national energy officer Matt Lay said: “This is another terrible blow for a workforce that’s already seen hundreds of jobs go. It’s a catastrophe being repeated up and down the country as all the major energy suppliers axe staff in a desperate attempt to stay afloat.

“But it doesn’t have to be this way. If the government took the retail arms of the big six energy firms into public ownership these jobs could be saved. The staff could then help us all go green and ensure the UK meets its target to be carbon neutral by 2050.”

Earlier this week UNISON published Power to the People, a report calling on the government to nationalise the parts of the big six energy firms that sell energy to customers to help the UK hit its carbon neutral target by 2050.

The big six energy firms are British Gas (Centrica), SSE, E.ON, EDF Energy, Npower (Innogy) and Scottish Power (Iberdrola).