Carers left to pay the price

THE debt owed to those who look after ailing friends or family members is a considerable one. It is calculated that the 6.5 million carers in the UK save the country £119bn – equivalent to £18,473 each – every single year.

Their dedication and round-the-clock commitment reduces the burden of looking after often elderly and vulnerable patients on an already over-stretched NHS.

Yet the personal price being paid by these selfless individuals is a shocking one. Vast numbers are accumulating unmanageable debt as they struggle to cope with loss of income, savings and benefits alongside rising everyday food, fuel and care-related bills.

Nor does it help that, as this newspaper has previously reported, record numbers of carers are missing out on vital financial support. The Carers UK charity has found that 32,200 carers across the Yorkshire and Humber region are failing to claim a staggering £100m worth of Carer’s Allowance.

Coupled with Government cuts to benefits and support services, it is a double whammy that leaves such individuals facing serious financial hardship.

With an ageing population, the role of the carer has never been more important. It is therefore nonsensical that the support offered to them is diminishing rather than increasing.

The implications for the health service if financial pressures dictate that carers are no longer able to continue their work simply do not bear thinking about.

It means efforts to raise awareness of the assistance that is available to them must now be redoubled, while an urgent reassessment of the long-term repercussions of benefit cuts must also 
be made. There are more than 500,000 carers in this region, half of whom combine their onerous responsibilities with a job.

Given the value for money they represent – as well as the selfless dedication they show to those who depend on them for so much and which hospitals would struggle to match – the country has a responsibility to both recognise and support their endeavours.

Stuck in slow lane

Urgency needed on HS2 project

BORIS Johnson may divide opinion as a political figure, but his pertinent observation on the HS2 saga bears repeating. The London mayor has pointed out that in the two years that have so far been spent talking about high-speed rail, China has managed to build its own 813-mile route from Beijing to Shanghai.

Such prevarication – fuelled in part by Labour’s calculated cynicism toward a project it initially championed – merely delays the much-needed investment in national rail infrastructure it represents and further pushes up the cost to the taxpayer. As Sir David Higgins, the new chairman of HS2, warns: “The meter is always ticking.”

The case for HS2 has been made – not only in terms of increasing much-needed capacity on an outdated rail network that is failing to keep pace with demand but in kick-starting the under-performing northern economy.

It is why Transport Secretary Sir Patrick McLoughlin, who made a visit to Yorkshire yesterday, must recognise that it makes sense both politically and financially to start the new line from Leeds and London simultaneously – as Sir David suggests – in order to both save money and address concerns in this region that the scheme will reach Birmingham and then run out of steam.

The longer this process drags on, the more millions are wasted. Lobbyists are being paid to promote the scheme, protest groups are using taxpayers’ money to oppose it. Expensive consultants are busy gobbling up public money working on drawings and plans without a single rail being laid.

David Cameron talks of equipping Britain for the “global race” but such dithering leaves us trailing in our competitors’ wake. This is why it is vital that the political will is now shown to ensure the HS2 Hybrid Bill receives a convincing vote at its second reading in the Commons before a speedy move to and through the committee stage.

Such anguished hand-wringing is simply ramping up the cost of HS2 and squandering funds that could be better spent ensuring it is delivered quickly and on budget.

Farce at the BBC

A staggering lack of accountability

AT its peak, 184 staff and contractors worked on the BBC’s ill-fated Digital Media Initiative programme before the entire project was written off last May at a cost to the taxpayer of £100m.

The story that has emerged is one of hubris, ineptitude and petty internal politics, along with a failure to recognise that the entire project had veered disastrously off the rails.

As is invariably the case at the BBC, however, the impression given by former director-general Mark Thompson at yesterday’s Commons public accounts committee hearing was that no one was really to blame.

Such profligate waste occurs all too often within a public sector that commissions grand projects with only the vaguest understanding of how they will be delivered.

So who will ultimately pay the price for this latest example of managerial incompetence and catastrophic failure of governance? The good old licence payer, of course.