The Coronavirus pandemic is a catastrophic tragedy – a tragedy the likes of which we often see played out in less wealthy parts of the world. This time, it’s on our doorstep. This time it’s our families, our friends and colleagues. It’s our fellow citizens.

For unpaid carers, the impact of Covid-19 is both direct and indirect, and it is devastating.

I’ve been caring for my husband, who has a high level, complete spinal injury, for over 20 years. There are almost 800,000 people in Scotland like me, who look after and support disabled or sick loved ones. Most, like me, are women. They are the beating heart of health and care systems across the UK.

Unpaid carers are the unacknowledged key workers sitting at the heart of the Covid-19 storm. Yet as Oxfam Scotland and over 100 other organisations have today underlined: carers are facing real, life changing challenges which have longer term implications for how we rebuild our society and economy and we move out of the Coronavirus crisis.

Even before the pandemic, many carers faced poverty. For years, we’ve been plugging holes in the social care system, yet we’re only offered around £77 a week in return, and that’s only if you meet a strict set of benefit eligibility criteria. It’s around £10 a week less if you live in England and Wales.

Carers face additional costs as a result of Covid-19. Our heating costs will be higher than normal; we’ve had to buy in more continence equipment. We’re doing more online shopping which brings its own costs, and stresses when you can’t get a delivery slot.

So many carers are struggling. According to Carers Scotland 79% of carers are having to spend more during the pandemic. We’re paying for deliveries and hygiene equipment such as hand sanitiser and PPE, often at vastly inflated prices.

Lynn Williams described the emotional and financial toll of lockdown on her and husband Derek.

But we’re not just faced with financial pressures, there’s the emotional and physical toll too. We’ve had pain treatment postponed, yearly health check ups at the Spinal Unit may not happen and important diagnostic tests to look at kidney function have been cancelled. Others have faced similar challenges – leaving greater worry about the health and wellbeing of our loved ones.

And of course, we worry about getting sick ourselves.That deep fear haunts my nights. What would happen to my husband should I contract the virus? Worse still, what if I died?  

Anxiety, stress, multiplied by the direct and indirect impacts of Covid-19. So many carers feel that they may burn out. And I understand how that feels - I have been anxious, scared and have felt utterly alone. My own fear is magnified when my husband looks on with terror in his eyes as he sees himself in every older or disabled person who dies as a result of this pandemic. At times, the pressure has felt like a heavy weight on my shoulders.

That fear is living in the homes of disabled people and unpaid carers across Scotland and beyond. We feel helpless when we have no say in the policies and responses which so profoundly affect every aspect of our lives.

Now, our political leaders have begun to talk about the future – some more honestly than others.

Honesty about the post Covid-19 reality must take into account the policy failures which preceded the crisis – the inequalities that that have been magnified by the pandemic. And honesty about all of this must be accompanied by hope. Hope is needed – we carers must be given a reason to keep fighting and to keep caring.

A new normal requires a new politics and proper, total and open inclusion of those hardest hit in shaping the way forward, in shaping their own future.

We cannot continue as we were before the Covid-19. When we say lessons will be learned, we must mean it. We must build new dreams, a new vision that puts human rights and wellbeing at the heart of everything we do. From the ashes, new dreams start.

Lynn Williams cares for her husband Derek at their home in Paisley.

  • Lynn spoke out as more than 100 anti-poverty charities including Oxfam Scotland demanded more help for Britain's army of paid and unpaid carers.

In a joint campaign, the groups called for urgent assistance as the financial and emotional cost of isolation continues to deepen.

Around 30 of the anti-poverty groups are based in Scotland, where politicians at Holyrood and Westminster are under pressure to make more of a difference.

Jamie Livingstone, from Oxfam Scotland, said carers are the “glue that hold our society together”.

He added: “Today we have one simple call - for politicians across Britain to act now to end carers’ poverty. Carers must be given the same level of support and respect they give to others, both now and for good.” 

The groups welcomed measures including £460 a year for those receiving UK-wide carer’s allowance. But there are concerns lockdown during the coroanvirus pandemic is having a major impact.

Carers Scotland said its research shows as many as eight out of 10 unpaid carers are having to shell out more to put food on the table and meet their bills during the coronavirus pandemic.

New survey details from YouGov underline public support for more help.

  • 66% of Scots think care workers are paid too little.
  • 62% say care work is not valued highly enough by the government.
  • 63% say carers on low incomes need more social security.

Fiona Collie, policy and public affairs manager at Carers Scotland, said: "Governments must recognise the huge efforts of Scotland's 700,000 unpaid carers during this pandemic and act now to provide the support unpaid carers so desperately need."