Tag: financial hardship

Independent Age comments on new Benefit Take-Up Strategy

Responding to the Scottish Government’s new Benefit Take-up Strategy, released yesterday, Debbie Horne, Scotland Policy and Public Affairs Manager at Independent Age said: “Today, the Scottish Government published its third Benefit Take-up Strategy. As the charity for older people facing financial hardship, we know firsthand how important income maximisation is for the older people in Scotland that we work with. 

“With over £350 million going unpaid every year to older people on low-incomes, improving take-up of social security is essential to tackling poverty in later life. Our research shows that if there was full take-up of Pension Credit, Housing Benefit and Council Tax Reduction across Scotland, 30,000 older people would be pulled out of poverty and there would be a £90 million reduction in health and social care spending each year.

“However, our Older People’s Index 2026 revealed that 1 in 5 older people don’t know about Pension Credit, and around 1 in 4 don’t know about Council Tax Reduction and Housing Benefit, with even lower awareness of support like the Scottish Welfare Fund. So, this strategy and the actions proposed are incredibly important. 

“We are therefore pleased to see a greater focus on how agencies can work together to increase take-up across all entitlements including those reserved to Westminster.

“We also welcome moves to better use existing data to help people access their entitlements no matter who administers them and look forward to seeing measurable progress.”

benefit-take-up-strategy-2026-2031Download

Care Workers’ children struggling while parents work 60-hour weeks for below minimum wage

CHARITY SINGLE SHINES LIGHT ON CRISIS

Nine care workers from across the UK joined the Homecare’s Got Talent Choir to release a charity single recorded at the iconic Abbey Road Studios to raise urgent awareness of the shocking levels of financial hardship within the care sector.

Several famous faces have also shared their talents for the project having joined the Home Care’s Got Talent judging panel earlier this year: musician Kuill from The Voice, Married at First Sight’s Matt Jameson as well as The Fizz star Jay Aston. The track, a cover of Robbie Williams’ Angels, launched on Friday 28th November and immediately hit Number 8 on the iTunes Download Chart.

But behind the music lies a far more serious issue.

According to The Care Workers’ Charity, food bank usage among care workers is five times the national average. Many carers are working 60 hours a week yet still cannot afford to heat their homes or provide Christmas presents for their children.

The charity warns that half a million UK care workers are in financially precarious situations, with some earning the equivalent of below minimum wage once unpaid travel time and personal costs are deducted.

This Christmas, while care workers are supporting the nation’s most vulnerable, many of their own children are going without basic essentials.

Dan Archer, Founder of Homecare’s Got Talent and CEO of Visiting Angels, explained, “It’s a nice story that care workers recorded at Abbey Road… but the reality is far from nice.

“If this were starving children, the country would be outraged. Well, it is starving children – the children of the people caring for everyone else. We made this single to raise money, yes, but also to force the nation to look again at how we treat the people we rely on most.

“When you listen to the lyrics, they speak to what carers do ‘and through it all, she offers me protection’. It’s high time our policy makers did more to protect this precious workforce.”

The caregivers travelled from as far away as Scotland and North Wales to take part in the recording, representing home care providers Caremark, Home Instead, Voyage Care, Visiting Angels, Mochridhe, Vitality Care and Calon Lan Community Care. With the support of the public, they believe they can surpass the original version’s chart success from 1997 and go all the way to No.1. 

All profits raised by the single’s downloads will be donated to the Care Workers’ Charity. The charity is dedicated to supporting the social care workforce, those providing care and support to the million+ people drawing on social care. 

The project’s message is simple: care workers deserve better and so do their families. Angels by the Homecare’s Got Talent Choir is available to download now:  

https://linktr.ee/HomeCaresGotTalent