A councillor has asked if more can be done to help unpaid carers in the Vale of Glamorgan access support after it was revealed that hundreds of applications for grants were unsuccessful. Councillor Susan Lloyd-Selby raised the question at a Vale of Glamorgan Council Healthy Living and Social Care scrutiny committee meeting on Tuesday, March 7.
A report published before the meeting revealed that 1,233 out of 1,949 applications for a £500 unpaid carers grant, accessed through the council, were successful. Cllr Lloyd-Selby asked council officials for the main reasons behind 716 of the applications being unsuccessful.
The Vale of Glamorgan Council's operational manager for safeguarding and service outcomes, Natasha James, said: "We had a number that were duplicate applications. Some people put applications in eight times. The application process, it was an online process, although you could contact a carer support officer who could help you to go through that. The other predominant feature was that the individual wasn't receiving the correct carers allowance."
