Source: The Sydney Morning Herald [Paul Bibby]

JOHN HOWARD may not be able to deliver on his promise to provide respite services for carers because there are not enough professional carers to provide them, the Carers Alliance says.

The Prime Minister yesterday promised to provide 120,000 extra individual days and 10,000 additional full weeks of round-the-clock respite care each year at a cost of $223.5 million over five years.

He said this would provide 100,000 carers with at least one fully-funded eight-hour day of respite each month, and one full week, each year.

The policy is designed to assist carers who are unable to take a holiday or even manage time off for basic tasks such as shopping or going to the dentist, because of their commitment to a loved one.

However, the NSW Senate candidate for the Carers Alliance, Nell Brown, said that poor wages and conditions meant professional carers were leaving the industry in droves, and that there were not enough carers to meet any additional demand.

"Anything that is going to ease the situation for carers is welcome, but what worries me is where the workforce will come from to fulfil this promise," she said. "The baseline award for a carer is around $16.80 an hour, which is nowhere near enough to keep people in the industry and as a result professional carers are leaving.

"My daughter has a respite care package but she can't get care because they can't find a person who can do it. If that is the situation now, I can't see how they are going to find people to provide 120,000 extra additional days of care."

The party secretary of the Carers Alliance, Mary Lou Carter, said questions also remained over where the respite services would be provided, with NSW experiencing a critical shortage of accommodation for people with disabilities.

"Mr Howard has given us thoughts of respite, but where is it actually going to take place?" Ms Carter said.

"In the last state budget, the capital infrastructure budget of the Department of Ageing, Disability and Home Care was cut by 10 per cent. There is simply nowhere in NSW for this respite care to take place."

The president of the Federation of Australian Carers, Neville Maxwell, said that carers needed a pension increase far more than they needed a week off because many were unable to make ends meet on $240 a week.

"There are people who work up to 140 hours a week but are reliant on charity for food coupons to get by," he said. "What we really need is more money."