New Social Care Information Service to help women over 50 hit most by austerity measures

The Labour Party has launched a new Social Care Information Service as part of the launch of a special older women’s commission to be chaired by MP Harriet Harman.

The new service was announced by Yvette Cooper, Labour's Shadow Women and Equalities Minister and Shadow Home Secretary.

She said: “Family responsibilities no longer just mean children. Many women – especially older women – have found themselves forced to give up work to care for elderly relatives, especially as social care has been cut.

“Women worrying because their Dad's meals on wheels have been cut or they can't find support for their Mum who lives miles away.

“That's why Liz Kendall and Andy Burnham's work on social care reform is so crucial to rebuilding our economy.

“And thanks to work by Barbara Keeley, Salford Labour Council has now agreed to pilot a new Social Care Information Service, to provide immediate practical help for families who need to find support.”

The service will bring all of the information on local support services together in one place and is for people who don’t know where to go for help.

Ms Cooper revealed that women in their fifties and sixties have been affected most by the austerity measures as they have suffered a 30 per cent increase in unemployment since the election – compared to five per cent for everyone else.

She claims they are “facing the toxic combination of ageism and sexism in the workplace”.

Ms Cooper added: “Pulled in all directions – helping their children financially, minding grandchildren, or caring for elderly parents too. Not just the squeezed middle but the stretched middle generation.

“As Fiona MacTaggart has argued so strongly in Parliament, Labour must become the voice for the women in the middle. That is why we are launching our new Older Women’s Commission, chaired by Harriet Harman. For the generation who fought for equal pay and child care, broke barriers, challenged prejudices now campaigning again, to whom younger generations owe so much, leading the way again now.”