MORE than 100 organisations have signed an open letter to MPs today warning that many carers already living in poverty are under “intolerable pressure” as the coronavirus outbreak continues.

The government’s carer’s allowance is currently £67.25 a week for an unpaid kinship carer looking after someone for more than 35 hours a week. Research by Carers UK, one of the signatories, suggests that 81 per cent of unpaid carers are spending more money during the Covid-19 outbreak.

Anti-poverty campaigners, unions and women’s rights organisations wrote the letter to demand that underpaid carers are offered more help. The signatories warn that an inadequate social-security system and low wages have left paid and unpaid carers stuck in poverty for years, which is now being exacerbated by the Covid-19 pandemic.

They are calling for carer’s allowance and child benefit to be increased, the five-week wait for payments to be removed for universal credit claimants and for funds to help social-care employers pay their care staff a minimum of the real living wage.

Carers UK chief executive Helen Walker said: “Unpaid carers providing care for family members and friends have been vital in the UK’s effort to keep vulnerable people safe from the coronavirus, yet they tell us they feel ignored and invisible in this epidemic.

“It is simply unacceptable that carer’s allowance is the lowest benefit of its kind when unpaid carers contribute so much to our society and the economy — now, more than ever.

“This pandemic needs to be a turning point in how we, as a society, treat carers.”

She urged the government to ensure that there is no “financial penalty” for caring, and to invest in the care and support “families so desperately need.”

Women’s Budget Group director Dr Mary-Ann Stephenson pointed out that women make up the vast majority of paid and unpaid carers and are at “greatest risk” of being pushed further into poverty during the coronavirus crisis.

The letter comes as a poll commissioned by Oxfam, one of the signatories, found that 78 per cent of respondents believe care work is not valued highly enough by the government.

Sixty-three per cent of the 1,814 people questioned said that those on low incomes who look after sick or disabled people should receive more financial support through increased social security payments.