 The final item of business is a member's business debate on motion 6, 7, 8, 3, in the name of Paul O'Kane, on carers rights day 2022. The debate will be concluded without any questions being put. I invite members who wish to participate to press the request-to-speak buttons now or as soon as possible. I will put an RTS in the chat function if they are joining us remotely. I call Mr O'Kane to open the debate for around about seven minutes. Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer, and I'm delighted to have this opportunity to open this member's business debate to mark carers rights day 2022. I'd like to thank colleagues from across the chamber for joining this evening to contribute to this debate and indeed to all those who supported the motion, which allowed this debate to take place this evening. Carers rights day is an important marker on the calendar, which provides an opportunity to spread awareness of the fundamental rights that apply to all carers. Some of those particular rights include flexible working options with their employer, the right to be identified and recognised as a carer, the right to request certain immunisations such as a flu jab and the right to be consulted on things such as hospital discharge. Fundamentally, it is about acknowledging the rights that carers have to be supported and respected. It is about the dignity and value that people have in our society and acknowledging that people are human beings, giving all that they can to care for a loved one. As we begin the debate, it is important to recognise that we cannot just reduce carers rights to one day in a year or one debate in this chamber in a year. Indeed, the lived experience of carers should and must be mainstreamed into all our policy discussions and all policy proposals across everything that we do. Before I came to the chamber, I had been tweeted by Lyn Williams, a carer whom I have known well, who said that, enough is enough, carers have to be at the table where the decisions are made and they have to be involved in carer-proofing our legislation and indeed our budgets. As we often hear in the human rights debates, we can do nothing about us without us and I think that that is true of carers as it is of so many other groups. This year, carers rights day was marked on 24 November with a theme that focused on the cost of caring. That could be the cost on unpaid carers wellbeing, the financial cost associated with looking after someone or how caring for someone can cost carers in the quality of the relationships and the activities that they often have to sacrifice. The cost of caring is particularly pertinent this year, given that we find ourselves in the midst of an unparalleled cost of living crisis. In Scotland, there are an estimated 800,000 adults who provide care for someone who is seriously ill, someone who lives with a disability or someone who needs additional support in later years. It has been estimated by Carers Scotland that it would cost £10.9 billion every year to replace the cumulative labour of unpaid carers. We also meet, not only in the context of the current cost of living emergency, but it is clear that we meet in the context of Covid. Unpaid carers were crucial in our response to the pandemic, shouldering enormous burdens to keep their loved ones safe. For many carers, Covid has not gone away and real fear and anxiety continues to exist for them as they try to care for their loved ones. They are crying out for continued support in terms of antivirals and other supports. As our society began its recovery from Covid, we all dreamed of creating a new and better future. The rhetoric, indeed, was to build back better. There was a vision of a fundamental better society, and it seemed tangible. Politicians of all stripes promised a new deal for carers, but, if we are honest, the action has not yet matched the rhetoric. We are still very much on a journey towards changing things for the better. In the last year, I have had round-table sessions with unpaid carers, along with colleagues, and I have listened to them as they have shared with me the everyday challenges that they are facing right now. Tragically, in Scotland, we know that unpaid carers are facing choices between turning on their heating or feeding themselves. That is not just a glib phrase, it is the reality that is being faced by tens of thousands of unpaid carers. New research from Carers Scotland, which was released in its report, has revealed that 40 per cent of carers on carers allowance have cut back on food and heat in order to make ends meet. I would implore all colleagues across the chamber if they have not yet read the report, it really is important and sobering reading. It is important to remember that the burden of the cost of living crisis is not shared evenly. Unpaid carers have been disproportionately impacted by the crisis. As people with caring responsibilities typically have higher energy costs, they need to operate essential life sustaining equipment such as hoists, oxygen and wheelchairs, which all require using much energy. Unpaid carers commonly must keep their houses warmer than average to ensure that the person they care for is comfortable and well. Indeed, we have seen some really stark stories recently in the press and elsewhere about individual circumstances. People will be familiar with the case of Caroline Hunter, which was reported at the weekend, facing energy bills in excess of £17,000 per year to care for her 12-year-old daughter Freya. People may have seen that Kate Winslet, the actor, contributed money to help Caroline to pay for those exorbitant fuel bills. However, we have to be honest with that, which is a very generous gesture. Carers should not have to always rely on philanthropy or charity in order to be able to pay their bills. There must be meaningful support from Government for carers who are faced with those extortionate bills because they have to run vital life sustaining equipment. We know that there have been ways to do this in England at the moment. A warm home prescription is being piloted in which people's energy bills were paid for by the NHS. That is a preventative measure that can keep people out of hospital and stop people with disabilities and complex health problems becoming seriously ill. I hope that the Scottish Government is exploring the various potential policy options in that space. I am sure that the minister will want to say something in that regard in his contribution. I think that it is important that we try to think outside the box and we try to work together to find the ways that we can support people in this very precarious time. I want to pay tribute to the incredible work of unpaid carers across the west of Scotland, my own region, many of whom I have had the privilege to meet and support since being elected to this Parliament. I also want to put on record my support and thanks to the work of carers that are represented by organisations such as Carers Scotland and Carers UK that have commissioned the state of caring report, but also to our carers centre, whom I am sure we all know well in our own areas, who do a huge amount of work to protect and support the rights of carers. I put on record my thanks to carers centres in East Dunbarrenshire, East Renfrewshire, Renfrewshire, North Ayrshire and Inverclyde, because they are a vital lifeline resource for unpaid carers, providing expert advice and guidance, advocacy services and emotional support. In drawing to a close, let us all rededicate ourselves in this place to listen to carers, to respect their rights and, crucially, let us act together to make the changes that we so need. Thank you very much, Mr O'Cain. I will now move to the open debate. I call first Christine Graham to be followed by Jackie Baillie around four minutes, Ms Graham. Thank you very much, Deputy Presiding Officer. First, I congratulate the member on securing this debate and pay tribute to all who care for another, be it family, friend or labour, and whether they are eligible for carers allowance or not, because caring comes in many forms. It may be simply calling in a neighbour and helping with the messages, checking that they are okay or living in the household and providing 24-hour, seven days a week and nights support and everything in between. Carers come in all ages from the school pupil who perhaps cares for a disabled mum to the octogenarian who cares for his equally elderly wife with dementia. Those are not random examples, but constituency cases, which have, with many others, crossed my desk in my many years here. The numbered record as carers in Scotland, as Paul O'Cain has already said, is over 800,000, but it is probably much higher. As many do not identify themselves as carers, they are simply looking after a loved one, keeping them in their own home where they want to be. It is reckoned that, because of what they do, they save each year the Scottish purse some £10.3 billion that is according to Carers Trust website, which otherwise would have to be met by social and health services. Carers during the Covid pandemic had an even heavier burden to bear, worrying that they might bring that virus to the home. When we clapped for carers, it was for all carers. There is some financial support through the carers allowance, which is available if certain criteria are fulfilled, such as the person caring does so for over 35 hours a week and the person they care for is in receipt of certain benefits such as PIP. There is also in Scotland and only in Scotland the carers allowance supplement, with two payments annually of £245.70 for a year 2022-23. Even then, it is a struggle for carers. Inflation on all fronts, food, fuel, mortgages, rent has meant, as Paula Cane referenced, that some 40 per cent, according to carers Scotland, have cut back on their food and heating and other necessities of life. Indeed, there are dreadful issues of high energy bills when the person being supported requires specialist medical equipment, let alone heating, often with electricity running day and night. That is an issue that I have raised in the chamber and I am following up with NHS Lothian and NHS Borders to establish if there is any financial support available. Finally, there is the issue of respite for carers, that break that can make all the difference to them maintaining their own health and wellbeing. A recent case of mine concerned a loving daughter who cared for her father, who suffers from dementia and does require almost constant supervision so as not to endanger himself. He lives close by to her and, with her help, is keeping much of his independence. There was no respite service available to her, and that was just a few days ago. She was therefore concerned for others in a similar position, so I have established that, in the Borders, all it is in five council care homes are 28 beds of which 14 are currently unavailable, nine are intermediate and five are in planning. You can work out the small number of beds that there are to give you some respite to put your loved one in. Given the demographics of the Borders, it is as plain as a pike staff, this is a drop in the ocean. Yet, if carers do not have periods of relief, they too may reach breaking point, and then two people at least will require care and support. It is in this area that I would like to see progress, perhaps most of all, in which weep blunty would save the public purse, as well as we are doing the right thing. I would like the minister, if he can, to address the position of respite for carers across Scotland, not just in Midlothian and the Borders. I call Jackie Baillie to be followed by Jeremy Baill for around four minutes. Thank you, Presiding Officer. Let me start by congratulating my Labour colleague Paul O'Kane for securing this important debate on carers' rights and for the thoughtful comments in his speech. Carers are the backbone of our community, providing social care to family and friends. Carers' rights day is an opportunity to highlight the challenges and inequalities faced by carers and to ask the Government to take action. Carers stepped up to the plate during the pandemic, and many shouldered the responsibility of looking after family and loved ones to keep them safe. They took on the roles that were often unprepared for, carrying out personal care and administering medicine. It is estimated that the care provided by unpaid carers over the course of the pandemic has saved all the Governments making up the UK over £193 billion per year alone. Because they were caring for vulnerable people, many carers were shielding to minimise transmission of Covid-19. For many of those cared for, the threat of Covid remains very real, and some of them are still shielding. However, as we go into what will be a hard winter, access to antivirals is patchy at best, and proofolactics, such as Evicheld, are non-existent on the NHS, despite being approved for use in more than 30 countries around the world, including America. The Scottish Government has suggested clinical trials, but I have a suggestion for them—a trial on the population that are effectively shielding and their carers. Many carers feel abandoned by the Scottish Government. The rest of the country has moved on, but carers are left in the same position that they were two years ago, with no access to medicine that could help their lives to return to some normality. Care packages have not been fully restored, and access to respite has still not been returned to pre-pandemic levels. On top of that, the cost of living crisis has left carers and those cared for facing unprecedented pressure on their finances. The ending of non-residential care charges is vital in ensuring that people can continue to be cared for comfortably at home. That was in the Labour and the SNP manifestos, so can the Government tell us when they will do it? Carers UK found that a quarter of carers are cutting back on essentials such as food or heating, and 63 per cent are extremely worried about managing their monthly costs. As the bills mount up, energy and water prices are set to rise even higher, some carers, such as Carolyn Hunter, have already mentioned, are left facing the impossible decision to place her daughter into full-time care just to make sure that her care can continue. That is the decision that nobody should ever be forced into making. Like Paul O'Kane, I welcome the generosity of Kate Winslet, who is helping Caroline and Freya financially, but she should not have to do that. That is the Government's responsibility. Unlike, for example, in a hospital or a care home, the cost of running life-saving equipment at home is not fully resourced by the Scottish Government. When I asked the First Minister and the Scottish Government how much it would cost to cover those bills, the answer was simply, we do not know. That is not good enough. Without proper respite care, without or with the continuation of non-residential care charges and the lack of access to prophylactics and antivirals, we make life more difficult for carers and those who are cared for. There is simply insufficient support for carers. I do not want to return to this chamber every year on carers' rights day and find that not much has changed or improved. Carers are grateful for our warm words, but that is not what they really need. They need action, and they need it from this Government now. I thank all the charities and others who have furnished me with briefings for tonight's debate, and I also thank Paul Keane for securing this important debate. Carers can often feel like invisible of a forgotten group in society, but it conveys a powerful message from this Parliament that we can stand together in this chamber promoting the rights and causes of our caring community. I should perhaps declare an interest that I have a carer, a paid carer in the morning, and my wife and children help me as well. In this brief time, I have this evening, I want to focus on others on unpaid carers, a group that I believe are some of the most selfish people in the world. Day in, day out, they support the most vulnerable in our society, with little to no compensation for their service. Without them, there would be a huge deficit in care, which could not be replaced, causing many people to lack the aid that they require to function in their day-to-day lives. They deserve our respect, and they need our support. For many unpaid carers, life has become more difficult now as compared to life just a couple of years ago. The pandemic threw into sharp relief the extent to which unpaid carers rely on the support of Government programmes. During 2020, all day centres and respite facilities were closed to tackle the spread of Covid-19, especially amongst the vulnerable. As a targeted and time-limited measure, that was a good policy when we are supported. However, we are still seeing the effects of the closures today. Let me give Deputy Presiding Officer an example that I have had recently. A constituent who is a carer for her son who has severe autism. She has told me that before the pandemic, she went to day centres five days a week along with a significant level of respite care in the evenings and weekends. Since 2020, her son now only gets two days a week at the centre and has no support at weekends or evenings, no respite care at all. That is not acceptable, it is unacceptable. I accept that this is not the Scottish Government's issue, it is the City Council's issue. However, my constituent is having to make up that shortfall without any help from the local authority. The couple are not young. What happens to that boy in a few years' time when his parents are not able to care for him anymore? We as a Parliament should be doing everything that we can to lobby the Scottish Government and local authorities across Scotland to reopen the vital services, to provide aid for those who feel that they have been abandoned for the past two years. I would ask the minister, and I know that he does it regularly, and his team does it regularly, but can we meet again with Kozler and have an honest discussion about why we cannot reopen re-centers again? Finally, I want to make reference to an issue that many people have spoken about before. Valid is not unpaid carers but the level of compensation for paid carers. We have come through the pandemic and we are currently feeling the effects of war in Europe, global cost of living crisis. Everyone is feeling the squeeze, but those that care are feeling the effects of more mortitude. Caring is not an easy job. Caring is not a low-scaled job. Caring is a vocation that demands time, patience, compassion and no small degree of emotional and mental strength. We must ensure collectively that those who take up that calling are properly compensated. I call on all local authorities and the Scottish Government to be generous as possible during any negotiations with pay going forward. I thank my colleague Paul O'Kane for bringing this important debate to the chamber. I know that my colleague has been working tirelessly for months with carers and carers groups to find out exactly what we need to do to improve their and their loved ones' lives. I know that he will continue to fight with them to get the measures that we need in place to support them. It is important to be clear that we are talking about carers who do not receive employment payments, who are stepping in to look after and support a family member, a loved one or even a close friend. Those carers are not employed, they often do not see themselves in a role, in a job or in an essential service. Of course, we in this chamber all know that this is not the case. Carer Scotland tells us that every day almost 1,000 people in Scotland become carers. Most carers would call themselves a loving partner, a parent or a child or a good friend and do not immediately identify their caring role. I thought that it was very important that that means that they miss out on even practical support. The research shows that 97 per cent of carers took a year or more to identify themselves as a carer, with nearly half—46 per cent—going on to care a decade without identifying themselves. That of course means that they are missing out on essential, practical and financial support. We must all do what we can to make sure that they understand that they are entitled to this support. In my life before this place, I was lucky enough to have a job that allowed me to support and work with many unpaid carers. That was a number of years ago, and I think that at the time care by unpaid carers really was invisible. I do not recall in my early days of working anyone looking at supporting carers at providing services to house where mum or dad or gran provided the care and support, perhaps the occasional day service or weekend respite. Looking back, I recall families and extended families who provided high levels of care and provided social as well as emotional support to their loved ones. Then and now, without question and absolutely willingly, but what I am heartened to hear about now is that this group of carers are fighting back at a system that has forgotten them. That is quite right because we as a society need to support and value this role. The UK and Scottish Government must be prepared to offer practical, emotional and financial support to carers in Scotland and across the UK. Deputy Presiding Officer, what we know and what has been touched on by others is that there are approximately 800,000 unpaid carers in Scotland providing care and support to family, friends, affected by disability, illness or frailty associated with age. Care is a deeply gendered issue in Scotland as many as 70 per cent of unpaid carers are women. The current cost of living crisis is being felt even more acutely by carers throughout Scotland. In October 2022, Carers Scotland published State of Caring in Scotland, a cost of living crisis for unpaid carers, which surveyed over 2,000 carers on the impact of caring and the cost of living on their lives. The port found that carers were already more likely to be living in poverty than non-carers and twice as likely to be in poor health. Deputy Presiding Officer, to close, I want to be clear that we in this Parliament have a responsibility to ensure change. It is completely unacceptable to have that knowledge and do nothing. We must stand up for unpaid carers. Carers Scotland tells us, and I quote, that carers need financial help and practical health and care support as an urgent priority to ensure that they can make it through this winter. That includes increasing benefits by inflation, providing cost of living support to carers and an energy payment for people with severe disabilities to help households to manage the extra costs of living. I support those demands from carers organisations. I hope that the cabinet secretary can give us some idea about how they will move towards making sure that we can meet those demands that are essential for carers and their loved ones going forward. I welcome the opportunity to speak in this debate to Mark Carers' rights day. I congratulate Paul O'Kane for securing the debate and have also signed the motion. I put in record my support for the many carers in my constituency and thank them for what they do. For my time being as part of the nursing team at this Margaret's Scotland hospice, I saw first-hand how caring and compassionate unpaid carers are. As I have said previously in this chamber, I saw their unwavering, unconditional love and support. I also take this opportunity to praise the staff and volunteers of Carers of Western Bartonshire and Carers Link Eastern Bartonshire for providing an outstanding level of support to carers in my constituency. I thank to Carers Scotland and my Loma UK for the helpful briefings and their on-going efforts to highlight the pressures facing unpaid carers. A quarter of all carers are struggling to make ends meet and over a third have not had any break from caring in the last year. We know that there are approximately 800,000 adult unpaid carers in Scotland. It would also cost an estimated £10 billion every year to replace the care that they provide. Carers have been hit by some of the hardest hit by the cost-of-living crisis, with many not even eligible for the support payment. For far too long unpaid carers were given a raw deal by the social security system. Take care as allowance, for example, since 1976, when it was initially introduced in the carers allowance, successive UK Governments refused to align the amount paid with other earning replacement benefits. The Labour Party, Tories and Government gave no priority to carers and still the UK policy seems to be the same. Surely they must accept that at a UK level there should be a party with other earning replacement benefits. About matching our policy in Scotland, it would bring more to the budget to help fund the radical overhaul of carers allowance that would shape through the new carers assistance. The Parliament has made welcome changes to the financial support that we provide to carers. That includes the settlement that the young carers grant, but we know more needs to be done. We need to look at the earnings limit, the bar to students' claiming, help for those who care for more than one person and those with an underlying entitlement. To name just a few things that needn't addressed, carers deserve better, and in Scotland this Parliament must do everything we can to ease our burden and further create better policy and levels of support. However, that ambition must be matched by Westminster too. The truth is that it is not and was not. No matter the Government, just look at the payments to carers gone out this week. The Scottish carer supplement of £245.70 versus the Westminster Christmas bonus to carers of £10. I thank the member for taking that intervention, and if I remember correctly, the member was on the social security committee when the minister came and assured the committee and carers organisations that the carers allowance supplement doubling would continue until carers allowance was reformed. That's not happened. Would the member agree that that should happen, given everything that's just been said in the contribution? Mary McNair, I thank the member for the intervention. I really think that, before the Labour Party asked that we would do more, they should really catch up with us. You see that record in Westminster, carers have been ignored for years. Back to my speech, a real contrast in approach and the level of support. The Tories introduced their payment in 1972 and Labour kept it in its still set at £10 today. It is estimated that the Christmas bonus would be worth in excess of £100 if it kept pace with inflation. Surely, during the impact of the cost of a living crisis on carers, all parties believe that they deserve more than a measly £10. Do we not all believe that it should be adjusted and recalculated and paid at a rate that values carers for what they do? Actions are better than words. In conclusion, in the short time that I have had, I focus on the social security system. Although it is important, especially now, the needs of carers are much more than that. Let us unite with this Parliament, providing a compassionate system of support that does carers justice and recognises the massive contribution that they make. Gillian Mackay, who joins us remotely, will be followed by Pam Duncan-Glancy. Ms Mackay, for around four minutes, please. Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer, and thank you to Paul O'Cain for bringing forward this really important member's business debate. I would also like to thank carers up and down the country for all the work that they do in looking after their loved ones. At some point in our lives, any one of us may have to provide care. We have heard at the cross-party group on carers that getting people to see themselves as carers in the first place is difficult in itself. Can I take this opportunity to shamelessly plug their good work and that we have a meeting of the CPG tomorrow lunchtime for anyone interested? Many people in the chamber know that I did not see myself as my grandpa's carer, and, like many other people, believe that I was just doing what was done. We cannot get people to use the supports that are there if we do not identify the people who need the support in the first place. Representation and parity is an important part of Paul O'Cain's motion. Being seen as a key partner in the support of the person who care for rather than being seen as the last stop in the chain is key. Carers' input is vital and can often provide an insight that gives a view of the whole person and their needs. We need to support them to be involved in decision making and anticipatory care planning. Support, though here, is key. We hear that many carers are focused on getting from one end of the day to the other rather than on how to engage and further their to-do list. I share the concerns of other members on the stark findings in the State of Caring Scotland's report, as noted in the motion for today's member's business. The State of Caring in Scotland 22 report, conducted by Carers Scotland, found that 40 per cent of carers on carers allowance are cutting back on food and heat to make ends meet. The human aspect of this is stark and concerning. We are in a uniquely difficult situation with inflation that is now spiralling out of control. The direct result of the Conservative UK Government's economic policies are hitting the most vulnerable, the hardest, as stifling the devolved Parliament's ability to mitigate this disaster through more austerity. Those findings provide a stark reminder that we cannot be complacent about the progress that we have made. There is always more to do and the progress that we have made can so easily be rolled back. It is, of course, important to note the distinction between paid and unpaid carers as we have the discussions. Both providing vital care services and circumstances in which paid and unpaid carers are operating is certainly different. To quote directly from the State of Caring report, there are approximately 800,000 unpaid carers in Scotland providing care and support to family and friends affected by disability, ill health or frailty associated with older age. Carers save the economy in Scotland some £10.9 billion each and every year. The contribution of those providing unpaid care in Scotland is massive and I welcome the support that the Scottish Government offers to unpaid carers through the Carers Scotland act and the support that is available online such as the carers charter, advice on carers benefits and on local carers centres, which we have heard from many different people. The report also points out that nearly two thirds of carers say that financial worries are impacting on their physical and mental health. For those on lower incomes, this impact was even greater, with 73 per cent of carers on carers allowance and 84 per cent of carers with a household income of £1,000 or less a month, saying that the cost of living was having a negative impact on their health. We need to provide the highest possible support for carers regarding their financial, physical and mental wellbeing. When people are having to choose between heating and eating, we are not giving them the best chance of success. Once again, I would like to reiterate my deepest thanks to those providing care across the country. On behalf of myself and the Scottish Greens, we recognise the hard work that that takes. Thank you to all of you who are doing what you are doing. We would be lost without you. It is a privilege to speak in this debate today, and I want to congratulate my friend and colleague Paul O'Kane for securing this to mark carers rights day. This year's campaign focuses, as others have said, on caring costs and looks beyond just the additional financial pressures that carers face by also considering the cost to their emotional and physical wellbeing, too. The campaign is about highlighting that more than 1,000 people become an unpaid carer every single day, as my colleague Carol Mawkin mentioned, and every one of them is making sacrifices in their own lives in doing so. They pay the price of a state that is unable yet to meet the needs of those that it has a duty to protect as they step up and care for their loved ones. In recent years, the additional costs of being a disabled person have become more widely recognised, but it is also important to recognise that often those come hand in hand with the additional costs of those caring for them, too. Yet, in the various costs to living packages announced so far by both the UK and the Scottish Governments, not one targeted measure has been taken to give direct support to carers. Charging wheelchairs, keeping the heat and on, operating medical equipment, all of those things mean higher energy use at a time when the price of energy has skyrocketed. It is worth pointing out that, for many disabled people and their carers, also the pandemic is still a very real threat, as my colleague Jackie Baillie has pointed out. What little support they had, including PPE, has now gone, leaving carers to pick up those additional costs now, too. That is part of the reason why we asked the Scottish Government to maintain the uplift to carers allowance supplement that was introduced during the height of the pandemic, and I referenced a moment ago. Not only did they not do it, but they misled the committee and carers themselves by promising that they would, and now there is the cost of living crisis, too, I will. I believe that Westminster should at least align carers, aligns with at least earning and placement benefits and help rate the Christmas bonus to £100. Pam Duncan-Glancy. I thank the member for that intervention, and I simply do not have enough time to go into all of the things that I think the Westminster Government is doing wrongly and should start doing very quickly, including on carers allowance and supporting people through this crisis. Presiding Officer, it is no wonder that so many carers are living in poverty. The annual state of caring in Scotland report shows that even of those working alongside their carer and roll, which in itself is no small task, one in five are struggling to make ends meet. The Scottish Government must move quickly. With its development of the new Scottish carers assistance, which is due to replace the current carers allowance administered by the DWP, a benefit that is increasingly unfit for purpose. In doing so, it must work with carers to make changes to eligibility rules, removing the full-time study rule and increasing the number of hours carers are allowed to work, so that people are not forced to reduce their hours just to make sure that they do not lose out on essential income. Instead of taking action, dither and delay has meant that the carers are continuing to be forced to play by the DWP's unfair rule book, just like disabled people care for. Make no mistake, though. Simply allowing carers to work more does not solve the problem. In fact, having to balance work-life and caring responsibilities can be an impossible task, especially in the absence of flexibility and understanding for employers. That can mean carers, very often women, giving up the very limited time that they have to themselves or giving up work altogether. I said in my opening remarks that there is a cost of caring that goes beyond money, and most of that comes down to the fact that carers are going it alone. Their time is entirely consumed by their caring responsibilities, which takes an emotional toll. However, it is far more than that. If they take time out, there is no-one else to look after the person they care for. That is where the other cost of caring comes in—losing relationships, not being able to enjoy five minutes alone for a cup of tea, not having time to attend medical appointments. Ensuring growing numbers of employers are carer confident would mean more supportive inclusive workplaces that take into consideration the additional demands. Reducing recruitment costs would also be beneficial to employers too, reducing recruitment costs and preventing unnecessary staff turnover. When my colleagues and I come to this chamber to raise the voices of carers in our committees, we are hearing more and more from the Government that we and carers themselves should wait for the national care service and that that will solve all their problems. Carers cannot wait. They need solutions now. That is why days such as carers' rights days are so important. I want to end by saying thank you to every single one of them, up and down this country, who make sacrifices every day, most of which go unrecognised. To fill the role of two Governments who are not doing enough, we see you, we appreciate you and we thank you. I thank all of the carers across the country, as Ms Duncan Glancy has just done. They do invaluable work in supporting their friends and family. I also thank Paul O'Kane for initiating that important debate. I think that we should be thinking about carers every day and not just in carers' rights day. It is on all of us to ensure that we put carers at the heart of all that we do. That has been invaluable to allow the Parliament to acknowledge the crucial work done by carers and to highlight the particular pressures that they face. I am grateful for the opportunity to discuss some of the actions that we are taking. Before I move on to the actions, I would like to pick up on a point that Carol Mocchan made. I agree with Carol Mocchan that it is absolutely vital that people identify as unpaid carers to enable them to access the support that they are entitled to. That is why the Government ran a marketing campaign earlier on this year to highlight that point, to get people to recognise that they are in a caring role and to tell them how to access support. It is incumbent on all of us as parliamentarians as well that we do that in a day and daily basis. Scotland's unpaid carers make a crucial contribution to our communities. I know that the pandemic has added significant additional pressures. I welcome the state of caring in Scotland 2022 report. Its findings shine a valuable light on the experience of carers, which is sadly particularly hard for many, if not all, at this moment in time. As Minister for Mental Well-being and Social Care, I know how crucial it is to meet regularly with carers and the organisations that support them. I am committed to listening to unpaid carers and to amplifying their voices. That is the only way to truly understand the challenges that are being faced and to respond accordingly. In November, I attended the carers' parliament main event and the carers' parliamentary reception on carers' rights day, with the focus of that and the cost of caring. I will give way to Ms Harper. Emma Harper You mentioned amplifying the voices. Next week, I am chairing the cross-party group of health inequalities. Richard Mead from Carers Scotland is doing a presentation about health inequalities and how it affects people. Does the minister agree that cross-party groups are a useful way of elevating the voices of people so that we can identify problems and solutions? I think that cross-party groups are one of the ways to amplify voices. Beyond that, what we should all be doing and the Government is doing is listening more and more to the voices of lived experience right across the board as we formulate policy. I go back to my point about the cost of caring. It has never been so important that carers are aware of their rights and know how to get the support that they need, as we mentioned earlier. I was particularly struck by the experience of Carlin Hunter, who Paul O'Kane mentioned in his speech, who cares full-time for her daughter Freya. Carlin spoke very powerfully at both events that I attended about the huge financial challenges she is facing due to the rise in energy and wider living costs, but more importantly about the cost of our own health and wellbeing for balancing her caring responsibilities for our daughter with other work and wider family commitments. Carlin spoke movingly about her own experience, but I know that many other people face similar difficult situations. By listening to carer stories, I know that regular breaks are crucial to help them to maintain their health and wellbeing, as evidenced by Christine Grahame and her speech. For too long, many carers have been unable to take breaks because of a lack of support to allow that to happen. That has been exacerbated by the pandemic. Importantly, the National Care Service Scotland Bill makes changes to the Carer Scotland Act to deliver a right to personalised breaks for support for any carer who is not able to access sufficient breaks. The bill's intention is to ensure that being able to take sufficient breaks from providing care is an identified personal outcome in carers' personalised plans under the Carers Act. Although the NCS is about the future, we know that there are challenges this year. This year, we have invested an additional £20.4 million for local statutory carer support, bringing our total investment in the Carers Act to £88.4 million per year. In addition, we have expanded the easy access short breaks with an extra £5 million on top of the annual £3 million voluntary sector short break funds. I heard what Mr Balfour said about Daca. We wrote to local authorities again last week about that. I have to say that it is frustrating for me that many of those services have not reopened. He can be assured that we will continue discussions with COSLA and individual local authorities about getting this right for people, because it is absolutely essential that we do. In terms of the cost of living, we are very much aware of the higher bills that folks are facing. We have allocated almost £3 billion in this financial year to help households to face the increased cost of living, including £1 billion in providing services and financial support not available elsewhere in the UK. Social Security Scotland continues to work with carers and stakeholders to develop a replacement for carers allowance, the Scottish Carers Assistance, that works better for the people of Scotland, including additional support for people with multiple caring roles. Since the launch of the Carers Allowance Supplement in 2018, over 744,000 carers allowance supplement payments totaling about £210 million have been made to over 133,000 carers. Carers will receive, as Mary McNair said, a further £245.70 on 9 December. By the end of this year, Scottish carers continuously, in the receipt of Carers Allowance Supplement, will have received over £2,700 above carers allowance since its introduction. We are doing more here, but we know that there is more to do. Once again, I would like to acknowledge the work of unpaid carers right across the country, and I would like to acknowledge Members' contributions today. I could probably talk about this subject for many hours, and I see you shaking your head, Presiding Officer, and I won't. However, I will pledge to the Members that are here today that I will write to them with all the support that is available, including from the fuel funds that the Government has established. I want to acknowledge the huge contribution that carers make looking after family and friends across our country, recognising their value in alleviating pressures across health and social care. I want to reiterate the Government's commitment to doing what we can to make sure that it can access the support that it deserves when it needs it. I hope that other members will also help us in that regard.