Given that everybody has a personal public service number, there is no reason that the process should be so difficult. A friend of mine who made the decision to become a carer in order to spend time with her father, who died of a brain haemorrhage, during the last ten weeks of his life did not apply for carer's benefit. The process was complex enough to make her decide that it was not worth her while to apply. When she returned to work, having coped with the bereavement, she decided not to revisit the issue by applying retrospectively.