To recognise Carers Rights Day 2022 on the 24th November, Carers UK has launched a new research report Cycles of caring: transitions in and out of unpaid care, in collaboration with the Centre for Care at the University of Sheffield.
The research, which is based on data from 2010-2020, found that 4.3m people become unpaid carers every year – that’s 12,000 people a day. At the same time, more than 4m people leave their unpaid caring roles every year. These transitions are not experienced by people equally, with women more likely to provide unpaid care and to provide more hours of care than men.
The report also found that older workers are most likely to take on caring responsibilities: people aged 46-65 were the largest age group to become unpaid carers (41%).
CSPA is affiliated to Carers UK and support them in their recommendations, including calling on Government to launch a funded National Carers Strategy for England, and to improve identification of carers across the NHS, the public sector and by employers in order to improve the lives of unpaid carers. Time is well overdue to recognise the value of carers, both paid and unpaid.
