A growing “unsung army” of 1 million people with full-time care responsibilities needs better support, according to a report that one in three unpaid carers from poor backgrounds are unable to work because of their duties.
The trend is a result of an aging society and rising illness and disability concentrated among the poorest half of the nation’s working-age households, research by the Resolution Foundation found.
Nearly one in three working-age adults in low-income households has a disability, compared with fewer than one in five in better-off households, the thinktank said.
In modest households, 1 million people have caregiving responsibilities of 35 hours or more a week – the equivalent of a full-time job – making securing paid work a challenge.
Mike Brewer, deputy chief executive of the Resolution Foundation, said: “Britain is aging and sicker, but a large proportion of its population is disabled. While these trends affect the whole of society, they are most prevalent in the poorest half of working-age households across the country.
“While we talk a lot about the effects of aging and illness, the implications for demand for unpaid care are largely absent from the political debate.
“That’s despite Britain’s 1 million ‘unsung army’ doing at least 35 hours of unpaid care work every week – the equivalent of a full-time job.
“Just as we have done with working parents in recent decades, it is time to provide better support for these caregivers and their families.”
In response, a government spokesman said: “We understand the huge difference carers make, as well as the struggles they face.
“That is why we have delivered the biggest cash increase to the earnings threshold for Carers Allowance, but unpaid carers can also get support through the Better Care Fund, including short breaks and respite services.
“In addition, we are reviewing the implementation of carer’s leave and considering the benefits of introducing paid carer’s leave.”
In 2024, A Guardian Inquiry Tens of thousands of unpaid carers, many of them already living in poverty, have been left with huge bills for thousands of pounds in overpayments as a result of Department for Work and Pensions failures.
Despite Peter Schofield, the DWP’s permanent secretary, promising in 2019 that the new technology would eradicate the problem of overpayments, those affected have unwittingly fallen foul of the income rules.
In the five years since the Verify Earnings and Pensions tool, known as VEP, was introduced as a solution to problems with carers’ allowance, 262,000 overpayments totaling more than £325m have been recovered from carers and 600 carers have been prosecuted and received criminal records, according to the National Audi office.
As a result of the inquiry, Labor set up an independent review of the allowance and raised the income limit for those claiming it.
