Unpaid carers living in poverty

Prices for things have risen quite fast recently most notably food and energy. There are many factors being identified as the driver behind it such as, labour shortage, Brexit, the war, more fields having solar panels and wind turbines in place of crops, droughts etc. It is affecting everyone regardless of their spending power and many are thinking about how or what they spend their money on.

So what does this mean for carers, and why does what affects most others push them closer to the poverty line even more? First what is an unpaid carer?

Unpaid carers vs paid carers

An unpaid carer is generally someone who provides care for a family member or friend without financial compensation. This can range from personal care, to daily tasks or even with finances.

A paid carer does similar tasks but through an organisation or a company however receives a salary or monetary sum for doing so.

Living in poverty

Caring is a responsibility that comes both with rewards and potentially significant financial challenges. The longer someone provides care the bigger the financial impact. Carers can end up using some of their own resources to purchase additional equipment or services that social care does not provide. Those being cared for can be demanding in nature, and may make finding and holding a job quite difficult. Many end up either reducing their hours at work or leaving completely in order to carry out their caring responsibilities.

Many laws exist to support carers and the ones they look after, but are all employers on track with their support? Unfortunately, there are still many companies who do not provide enough support and provide a route back for employees who need to take time off. And the greater the caring need, the more likely someone is to be excluded from the labour market. This can leave those who need that support the most in financial difficulty and possibly in a position of poverty they are unable to escape.

On top of this they have increased costs such as energy bills, food, medicine, and fuel. Also consider those who rent, annual rises can cause additional financial strain. If we were to combine a reduced salary or no salary at all with a higher output of costs then where does that put a family in need?

In the UK carers receive an allowance based on the fact that they do not earn more than £196 per week (at the time of writing), which if added together is not enough to take them out of poverty. Other factors include finding reasonable care services both in terms of cost and reliability. This can cause some to find balancing their responsibilities challenging, and taking up work may prove difficult in the long run.

Interestingly some still do not recognise themselves as carers, and they end up missing out on benefits and support available to them. In the UK alone there are more than 1 million carers living in poverty, with reports estimating unpaid carers are 50% more likely to be in poverty than those who do not have caring responsibilities.

Whilst globally the numbers are not easy to pinpoint, the reoccurring theme from many countries concludes that unpaid carers are more likely than non-carers to live in poverty.