The Family Resources Survey estimated that in 2020/21, around 4.2 million adults in Britain were providing informal/unpaid care. The survey defined informal caring as care that is not a paid job, and can occur for many, or only a few hours a week.
The 2011 Census found that there were 491,000 carers aged 24 or younger in the UK. A 2013 report from the Children’s Society found young carers were more likely to be from Black and Minority Ethnic backgrounds.
Carers tend to have additional expenses, as they pay for care related equipment, transport costs and spend more on food and energy. This means recent cost of living increases and all the talk surrounding it may have particularly affected carers more but who in British politics is talking about this?
For over half of Britain’s carers, their main source of income are earnings from employment and this made up 56% of carers in 2020/21. State or private pensions were the main source of income for just under 23% of British carers, while only 18% of carers drew most of their income from state benefits like Carers Allowance.
Britain’s working-age carers were more likely to live in poverty (25% of female carers and 26% of male carers) in comparison to pensioners (20% of female carers and 21% of male carers). Carers who spend more time caring have higher poverty rates: with 44% of working-age adults caring 35+ hours a week being in poverty, compared to 17% of those caring fewer than 20 hours a week.
The NHS has acknowledged the “vital contribution” of unpaid/informal carers, saying it was “critical and underappreciated … not only to loved ones, neighbours and friends, but to the very sustainability of the NHS in England”. But as people talk about this cost of living crisis, who is caring for Britain’s unpaid/informal carers and will anyone speak up for them?
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