Almost a million will have more caring responsibilities by 2035

The Joseph Rowntree Foundation is calling on the government to address unmet care needs after they predicted almost a million more people will have caring duties within the next decade.  

It’s all well and good trying to establish more paid care services to assist with our ageing population, but new research from the Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF) – the UK’s leading poverty charity – shows we also need better support for unpaid carers.   

The charity have outlined that if the number if carers rises in line with population growth, 990,000 more people will have caring obligations by 2035 – the equivalent of twice the population of Liverpool. JRF have also claimed it is likely that unmet care needs would continue to increase, given that the proportion of over 65s in the population is growing faster than the average.

According to the new research, almost four in ten of the future carers (400,000) will be providing ten or more hours of informal care, 130,000 of whom will be working age. Overall, these new carers roughly represent a 10% rise on current numbers.

Against this backdrop, JRF is calling for a Future Care Needs Taskforce which would unite ministers responsible for care, work, benefits and communities to collectively plan to prevent a crisis of care within the next 10 years.

Priorities for the taskforce include:

• Make paid care services more affordable and accessible
• Increase support through the benefits system
• Work to help people care themselves and strengthen social networks

‘In the next 10 years the UK faces a crisis of care as we get older and live with illness for longer. Our already strained paid care system is unfit to meet growing and changing care needs. On top of that, a million more of us will be caring despite inadequate support which leaves unpaid carers at a higher risk of poverty,’ Abby Jitendra, principal policy advisor for care, family and relationships at JRF, said.

‘Government should set up a Future Care Needs taskforce to plan cross-governmental action to meet the rising tide of care needs, improving paid care services while making it easier for people to care themselves through benefits support and paid leave. This will give people real choice, as care needs grow, over how to meet theirs or their loved one’s care needs.’

More on this topic:

Social care CEOs demand more from government

New analysis finds 2.6m people over 50 have unmet care needs