Imagine working at least 35 hours per week and getting paid a maximum of just £2.34 per hour, in the UK, in 2024. If a company was exploiting people on this scale it would be named and shamed. Activists would be protesting outside their headquarters and occupying their buildings. Trade unions would be stepping in to organise their workers.

This is happening today, in this country, to carers – and the state is the perpetrator. Instead of addressing this scandal, the victims are being hounded by government.

Let me explain: if you care for an elderly or disabled relative, and provide them with at least 35 hours of care per week, you are entitled to carer’s allowance. This social security benefit pays £81.90 per week or £11.70 per day.

In 2019, there were 868,000 carers receiving carer’s allowance in the UK, at a cost of just under £3bn. The terms of their benefit allows recipients to work alongside their benefit, up to a maximum of £151 per week. This means that under the Government’s rules carers can have a maximum income of just £12,110 per year.

But if they earn........

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