Unpaid carers given Priority 6 status for the COVID-19 vaccine

The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) updated its guidance on the 30 December 2020 to confirm that adult carers who are in receipt of Carer’s Allowance, or those who are the main carer of an elderly or disabled person whose welfare may be at risk if the carer falls ill will be included within priority 6 of the vaccination roll out. 

I welcome this news as I had highlighted the need to include unpaid carers in the priority list in the vaccine roll out. I raised this at Business Questions on Thursday 3 December 2020: I asked the Leader of the House 

“Yesterday, the Joint Committee on Vaccinations and Immunisations published its criteria. Care UK has asked that unpaid carers be vaccinated immediately, and I do not know what the process is for feeding that into the Committee. Black and minority ethnic communities have also been hard hit by the virus, and we should also look at that, as well as multi-generational households.”

Carers UK  contacted me to say:  “I wanted to thank you for raising in Parliament the need for unpaid carers to be given priority status for the COVID-19 vaccine. We are extremely pleased that the JCVI has now clarified that unpaid carers will be included within priority 6 of the vaccination roll out. The JCVI’s updated guidance on the 30th December confirmed that adult carers who are in receipt of Carer’s Allowance, or those who are the main carer of an elderly or disabled person whose welfare may be at risk if the carer falls ill, are in priority #6. “

I am delighted that having raised the important work unpaid carers do they will be in a priority group which reflects the work they do. 

If you need to contact Carers UK they are at Carers UK London SE1 4LX;  tel 020 7378 4972.