Inequalities faced by unpaid carers

The Department of Health and Social Care has described (PDF) an unpaid carer as “someone who provides unpaid help to a friend or family member needing support, perhaps due to illness, older age, disability, a mental health condition or an addiction”.

The Family Resources Survey estimated that in 2023/24 around 8% of the UK population were providing unpaid care.

The economic value of unpaid care has been estimated at over £180 billion a year (PDF).

Library briefings on unpaid carers

The Library has published several briefings on unpaid carers. These provide statistics on unpaid carers and cover topics including social care support, the health and wellbeing of carers, carers’ employment rights, and young carers in education.

The briefings are available on the Library website at: Support for informal carers.

Carers Week 2025

Carers Week 2025 took place from 9 June to 15 June. The Carers Week website explains that its theme was Caring About Equality, “highlighting the inequalities faced by unpaid carers, including a greater risk of poverty, social isolation, poor mental and physical health.”

A report published on the first day of carers week examined key health and wellbeing issues affecting carers. Its findings, based on polling of 2,000 adults in the UK, included:

• 43% of current or former carers have seen a mental or physical health condition develop or worsen since taking on caring responsibilities. Of these, 39% said taking regular breaks from caring would have helped prevent this.
• 58% of current or former carers feel they are at a disadvantage as they are not able to look after their own health in the same way as those without caring responsibilities.
• A higher proportion of female carers said they face disadvantages with their health compared with males (64% compared with 52%).

Research on inequalities faced by unpaid carers

Research has identified inequalities faced by unpaid carers across a range of areas. This includes:

• Gender inequalities: women are more likely to provide care, and to provide care more intensively than men. With demographic shifts, women are disproportionately likely to take on a “sandwich caring role”, caring for elderly parents and dependent children.
• Financial inequalities: analysis by the Centre for Care found that caring results in an income gap for carers when compared to non-carers. For people providing over 50 hours of care a week, this income gap was £162 per month on average two years after becoming a carer. The “financial penalty” is more severe for women.
• Health and wellbeing inequalities: caring responsibilities can have a significant impact on physical and emotional wellbeing, particularly when people care for long periods of time or at a high intensity.
• Inequalities in accessing care and support: fewer unpaid carers are receiving support than in 2014/15, suggesting that carers may not be able to access the support they need.
• Geographical inequalities: unpaid care is more prevalent in deprived areas. People in deprived areas are also more likely to provide higher intensity forms of caring (50+ hours a week) than those in the least deprived areas.

State of Caring Survey 2025

Carers UK carries out an annual “state of caring” survey of unpaid carers in the UK. The 2025 survey was conducted between June and August 2025 and around 10,500 carers responded.

Following the survey, in October 2025 Carers UK published a report, State of Caring: The cost of caring (PDF). This looked at the impact of caring on carers’ lives, including financial costs, human costs, wider opportunity costs, and long-term costs. The report made several recommendations for the UK government, including that it should:

• Develop a new, fully-funded National Carers Strategy.
• Ensure local authorities have sufficient funding to enable them to fulfil their duties to carers under the Care Act 2014.
• Invest an additional £1.5 billion in breaks and respite services in England.
• Review the support provided to carers through the social security system.
• Provide additional financial support to carers of State Pension age, including a new non-means-tested payment.
• Legislate to introduce a new statutory right to five days of paid Carer’s leave per year.
• Reform the way the NHS interacts with unpaid carers. Detailed recommendations on this are set out in a separate report by Carers UK, published in September 2025 (PDF).
• Amend the Equality Act 2010 to include caring as a protected characteristic.

Reports from previous State of Caring surveys are available on the Carers UK website.