I HAVE just read your front page news item regarding Leigh being the fifth worst pay blackspot in the region.

What about those of us who are carers and never really get counted in any statistics?

This week I carried out a ‘sad exercise of my life’. From April 7 I will receive an increase in my carers’ allowance of £1.60 per week, bringing my total personal income to £61.35 per week.

This is paid because it is deemed I ‘care’ for my husband for a minimum of 35 hours per week.

Equate this to an hourly rate and you will see I get the princely sum of £1.75 per hour.

Look at it in real terms and if I discount the hours I am away from him when I help out at a foodbank one morning a week, or help run a messy church once a month, or attend church on a Sunday, or when he is away from me when he attends his physio sessions, the true hours worked are about 160 per week (because I need to be available through the night) and my hourly rate is really 38p.

Tell me that is a ‘living wage’.

To add insult to injury, my extra £1.60 per week will be deducted from his disability benefits because our joint income has increased When will anyone battle for us and get our rate of pay to match the living wage?

We save this government and local councils a fortune in unclaimed benefits and wages.

Then they have the nerve to cut services for disabled people and tell them they must pay more out of their benefits.

NAME AND ADDRESS SUPPLIED