UK’s ‘unsung army’ of full-time unpaid carers needs more support, report says | Carers
A growing “unnamed army” of 1 million people with full-time caring responsibilities needs better support, according to a report that finds a third of unpaid carers from poorer backgrounds are unable to work because of their role.
The Solution Foundation’s research found that this trend is the result of an aging society and rising health problems and disability rates concentrated in the poorest half of the country’s working-age families.
Almost a third of working-age adults in low-income families have a disability, compared with less than a fifth in better-off families, the think tank said.
He added that 1 million people in modest homes have care responsibilities of 35 hours or more per week (the equivalent of a full-time job), making it difficult to find paid employment.
Mike Brewer, deputy chief executive of the Resolution Foundation, said: “Britain is getting older and sicker, with a large proportion of its population disabled. While these trends affect society as a whole, they are most acute in the poorest half of working-age families across the country.
“While we talk a lot about the effects of aging and health problems, their impact on the demand for free care is largely absent from political debate.
“This is despite Britain having an ‘unnamed army’ of 1 million people doing unpaid care work for at least 35 hours each week, the equivalent of a full-time job.
“It is time to provide better support for these caregivers and their families, as we have done for working parents in recent years.”
In response, a government spokesman said: “We understand the huge difference carers make and the challenges they can face.
“That’s why we’ve delivered the biggest ever cash increase in the carer’s allowance earnings threshold, while unpaid carers can also get support including short breaks and respite services through the Better Care Fund.
“As well as this, we are also reviewing the practice of carer’s leave and considering the benefits of introducing paid carer’s leave.”
A Guardian investigation in 2024 found that tens of thousands of unpaid carers, many of whom were already in poverty, had received huge bills for overpayments of up to thousands of pounds as a result of Department for Work and Pensions failures.
Despite a promise from DWP permanent secretary Peter Schofield in 2019 that new technology would eliminate the problem of overpayments, those affected have unwittingly breached earnings rules.
In the five years since the earnings and pension verification tool, known as VEP, was introduced as a solution to carer allowance problems, more than 262,000 overpayments totaling more than £325 million have been recovered from carers and 600 carers have been prosecuted and criminalized, according to the National Audit Office.
As a result of the investigation, Labor launched an independent review of the allowance and increased the claimants’ earnings limit.
