{"id":19463,"date":"2025-09-16T13:46:57","date_gmt":"2025-09-16T12:46:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.familyfund.org.uk\/?p=19463"},"modified":"2025-09-16T13:47:00","modified_gmt":"2025-09-16T12:47:00","slug":"northern-ireland-politicians-discover-true-cost-of-caring","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.familyfund.org.uk\/news\/northern-ireland-politicians-discover-true-cost-of-caring\/","title":{"rendered":"Northern Ireland politicians discover true cost of caring"},"content":{"rendered":"

More than 40 politicians, civil servants, and other key stakeholders attended the event to hear the results of Family Fund’s Cost of Caring<\/strong><\/a> <\/strong>report which drew on the responses of more than 2,000 families across the whole of the UK, including families in Northern Ireland.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Minister of Health, Mike Nesbitt MLA, started the proceedings by giving his reflections on the research, before Dr Mark Bevan (one of our Research Team) presented the detailed findings.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As well as highlighting some stark realities about day-to-day life for many families, Mark explained how some families with disabled children are often caught “between a rock and a hard place”.  Benefits alone do not provide enough to meet day-to-day living costs, yet parent\/carers who would like to work more to improve their financial position, often cannot do so because of a lack of suitable childcare.  A key point in the presentation was a video featuring the words of Courtney, Julia and Jackline – parents who had shared their personal stories with us about the financial and emotional impact of raising a disabled child. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The event ended with the Family Fund team discussing the findings and recommendations with the attendees at the event.  These recommendations included: <\/p>\n\n\n\n