The £184 billion question: What would happen if the unpaid carers stopped caring?

More of us than ever before are caring for a family member or friend who is older, disabled or has a long-term illness. Yet unpaid carers are often overlooked and ignored. They provide care that is worth £184 billion a year, equivalent to the entire NHS budget. If the UK’s 5.8 million unpaid carers stopped caring, our social care and health systems, which rely on them so heavily, would quickly collapse. 

The demands for care are growing and simply cannot be met by the crumbling system. Rising costs, insufficient funding and staff shortages within the UK’s health and social care system mean family carers are increasingly relied on to provide support. What would this look like if they were no longer there?

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Unpaid carers are not only saving the economy billions. They are also crucial to our society for how they hold families together: enabling those they care for to get the most out of life, to participate in every community. From personal care (washing, dressing, eating), to administering medication, supporting health care (attending appointments), shopping, cooking, cleaning and providing emotional support, the role can be vast, complex – and essential to the nation’s wellbeing. 

If carers stopped caring, hospitals would be overwhelmed and many patients stuck, unable to be discharged home safely.  

Around 600 people already leave their jobs every day because of their caring responsibilities – and not all choose to do so. It is simply because the demands of care are so high and the ability to balance working and caring so difficult, owing to lack of support, that they feel they have no other option. While there are employers who understand, have carers’ networks, flexibility and carer’s leave (paid and unpaid) in place, many others do not. To prevent carers from leaving work, we need support and better rights in the workplace. 

Read more:

• Number of full-time unpaid carers in Britain soars by 70%: ‘Millions of us are carers or need care’
• I care for my husband and mum full-time, 24/7. The UK government thinks I’m worth £10 a day
• Up to 250,000 ‘forgotten’ unpaid young adult carers facing homelessness

Our analysis has shown 1.7 million people are now providing 50 or more hours of care every week. In our ‘Cost of Caring’ report, 52% of carers said the number of hours they spend caring had risen in the last year. With minimal support from the system, many carers can find themselves under extreme pressures, reducing their capacity to work and protect their finances and wellbeing.

Many want to do it, yet many also say they don’t feel they have a choice, and there can be a high personal cost, juggling care with work and family life, struggling to make ends meet financially and risking poor health. Carers Allowance, at £86.45 a week for those who care for at least 35 hours a week, is the lowest benefit of its kind. 

Looking after someone can be a rewarding experience but it can also be tough, lonely and bewildering. Two-thirds of adults will be a carer at some point in our lives. It can’t be planned for, but we are more likely to take on the role if we are women and if we’re between the ages of 55 and 59. The lack of recognition and visibility means it has often not been given the value it needs. 

There is a moral and economic obligation to support unpaid carers as part of the backbone of our society. We need to start valuing their enormous contribution and investing in support. Otherwise, if they can no longer care because of exhaustion and burnout, this can have serious consequences for workplaces and our social care and health systems. It is time for a social contract between families who provide care, the state and broader society. 

The government is moving forward in several critical areas, including an independent commission on adult social care. But concrete action to deliver better rights and support for carers within plans to reform the NHS, new workplace rights and a review of social security benefits, have never been more urgently needed. Without this, unpaid carers will continue to struggle with devastating consequences.

Carers UK is doing what it can to get good information and advice to more carers, encourage good practice and provide better support, including in the workplace. But there is a limit to what we can do without government investment.

Unpaid carers are the hidden foundation of our health and care system; without them, both public services and family structures would face immediate crisis, revealing just how deeply society depends on unrecognised and unsupported labour.

Emily Holzhausen CBE is director of policy and public affairs at Carers UK.

Do you have a story to tell or opinions to share about this? Get in touch and tell us more. 

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