New research from Just Group shows 10% of 1,000 carers have given up work completely and a further two in ten have reduced their working hours.
A new report from Just Group, a leading retirement specialist, has revealed the scarifies unpaid carers have to make in order to support their elderly loved ones. The research, which was published this morning, found almost a third of people aged between 45-75 have reduced their working hours or stopped work.
What’s more, only 37% said their work life carried on as normal while 16% were mainly retired and 14% weren’t working previously. Meanwhile, experts also discovered that male carers were more likely than female to say their employment carried on as normal (43% vs 32%).
The research highlights that those who stopped work altogether faced severe financial implications. 24% said it had cost them up to £200 a month and 34% claimed it was between £201-£500 a month. The average amount in lost salary was almost £539 a month, which equates to £6,468 a year.
‘Caring for an elderly relative can be personally rewarding but is often a sacrifice in terms of income from employment where people stop work, reduce their hours to move to more flexible but less well paid positions,’ said Stephen Lowe, group communications director at Just Group.
‘The economic benefit to the country from informal care is put at billions of pounds a year. But the vast majority of workers receive no direct support for the hours of caring they put in. It is literally a labour of love.’
News of the research has come as the government have confirmed an increase in Carers Allowance payments from April 2025, though this is still five months away.
The Carers Allowance is the main benefit aimed at helping people providing informal care to elderly relatives and this tax year it is worth £81.90 a week, but this due to increase to £83.29 – equal to around seven hours of the National Living Wage of £12.21 an hour.
Currently the benefit is also only given to people who earn less than £151 a week but this is changing to £196 from April.
‘The amount of income and opportunity being lost due to people caring is immense, not just at a personal level but for the country as a whole in terms of lower economic activity and productivity,’ Stephen continued.
‘It reinforces the importance of putting in place a permanent ‘fix’ for social care. The more that people are able to plan and pay for themselves to receive the care they aspire to, the less the responsibility on family members and the country as a while to look after them.’
The research for this report was conducted by Opinium between 6th and 20th August 2024 with a nationally representative sample of 1,000 UK adults providing care for a relative.
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