Carers National Association

Carers UK is the main membership charity in the United Kingdom for carers. It was formed by the merger of two existing voluntary organisations on 14 May 1988. Originally constituted as Carers National Association it was renamed Carers UK in 2001.

Carers UK provides information to carers and leads campaigns to improve carers' rights and tackle inequality. It has been instrumental in securing the first ever legal rights for carers. These include :

Carers UK also organises Carers Rights Day, produces leaflets and a magazine, and has a free carers helpline.

The registered address is 20 Great Dover Street, London, SE1 4LX.

Carers UK is a Trustee-led organisation, with a membership that has fluctuated between 7-20,000 individual members. Members at the AGM ratify the appointment of the Trustees who must always be a majority of carers.

Carers UK currently has staffed offices in four major UK cities- London (Headquarters), Glasgow, Belfast, and Cardiff. National committees exist in the devolved countries with some degree of autonomy to formulate local responses to the national devolved assemblies and their policy processes.

In 1965 the National Council for the Single Woman and her Dependants was formed following a letter to The Times by a carer, the Reverend Mary Webster, concerning the difficulties that confronted single women when they faced the complex task of earning the family living and caring for the home, the sick and the elderly. She began writing to newspapers, journals, MPs and peers drawing attention to the isolation and financial hardship that women carers were suffering. Her letters received a huge response from hundreds of women in similar situations.

Baroness Seear was an early supporter. Due to her intervention, a meeting was held in the Grand Committee Room of the House of Commons. Other early supporters and fundraisers included Sir Keith Joseph, MP.

The NCSWD was instrumental in securing the first ever right for carers in the Dependant Tax Allowance in 1967 as well as contributing towards the campaign to introduce Attendance Allowance, the benefit for people aged over 65, as well as securing Invalid Care Allowance, later renamed Carer's Allowance which is still the main benefit for carers today.

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