Millions of people across the UK are juggling their unpaid caring responsibilities with paid employment.
Too often, the challenges and stresses carers face, combined with a lack of support from the health and care system and not enough understanding or support from their employer, means that they have to give up work, or reduce their hours, to care.
Over half a million people a year are having to take this extremely difficult decision – with devastating consequences for their careers, their finances, their sense of self, and also their health and wellbeing. And many of those who are still balancing work and care are extremely concerned about how they will continue to do so given the pressures they face, while many have had to forego opportunities at work. Many say they are exhausted, stressed, and struggling to take a break.
We want to ensure that all unpaid carers can remain in work when they want and are able to do so. There is not only a strong moral imperative to support unpaid carers, but also a strong economic imperative too.
Currently, the UK lags behind other countries when it comes to workplace rights for carers and it’s time our workplaces reflect the reality of our lives.
The next Government must recognise the importance of supporting carers to participate in the labour market and take further steps to support and encourage them to do so.
Since I was made redundant, I have been unable to get work due to my caring responsibilities; this has had a huge impact on our household. It is impossible to budget as things are going up so much. It is very, very worrying.”
The next Government must:
- Build on the Carer’s Leave Act 2023 and give working carers a statutory right to two weeks of paid Carer’s Leave a year.
- Provide employees with the right to take a longer period of unpaid Carer’s Leave of up to 6 months, and further enhance peoples’ rights to work flexibly.
- Review and implement changes to the social security system to better support carers to remain in work, removing any aspects that act as a disincentive to work.
- Invest in adult social care to better enable carers to remain in work.
- Provide dedicated funding to support carers to get back to work after time out to care.
- Increase employer awareness of carers in their workforce.
Jane's story
Jane cares for her daughter, Alex, who is autistic and has Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, auto-immunity, and mental health difficulties.
Find out more
For more information, please see our State of Caring 2023 report on carers and employment.
