Tackling poverty amongst unpaid carers

Supporting unpaid carers out of poverty is morally right, but economically it also makes sense.

Unpaid carers look after the most vulnerable members of our society, they save the health service billions in care costs yet for many providing this care comes at significant personal cost, in education and employment opportunities, finances and their own health and wellbeing.

Shocking statistics show that over 1 in 4 unpaid carers in Northern Ireland are currently living in poverty (28%). Higher than the poverty rate amongst those who do not provide care (17%) but also higher than the poverty rate amongst carers in the rest of the UK (24%).

Many carers face a daily struggle to afford food, clothes or shoes and electricity or gas. Basic things we need for an adequate standard of living. Not luxuries.

The key drivers of these levels of poverty are:

• The high, inescapable extra costs of caring;
• barriers to employment and;
• low social security support.

More than half (55%) of unpaid carers who are out of work live in poverty making being unemployed the strongest predictor of poverty amongst carers in Northern Ireland.

For many carers unemployment is not a choice but rather an unavoidable result of their caring responsibilities. Carers NI State of Caring survey 2023 revealed 1 in 3 unpaid carers leave employment due to their caring role, 1 in 4 cut down their hours and others take on jobs they are overqualified for or turn down promotions to fit around caring responsibilities. This has significant impact on careers and a loss of a much-needed wage. And the impact of leaving work to care is often long lasting – affecting not just current income but also pension contributions and future earnings.

For other carers combining paid work with a caring role leaves them constantly juggling, exhausted, anxious and burnt out.

For some carers taking on or maintaining employment may not ever be possible due to the intensity of their caring role and we need to do much more to support them financially through our social security system. However, many carers are keen to take on or remain in employment with the right workplace and social support in place. They value not only the financial security but also the identity and social connections employment gives them and the break away from caring.

There are several key policies supports which would help.

These include:

• Reform of carer’s allowance with a higher, tapered earnings threshold;
• reform of the social care system, allowing carers that time to take on employment and the breaks to look after their own health and wellbeing knowing that their loved one was being cared for by quality, reliable replacement care and;
• statutory support and a workplace culture that values carers as employees and offers key enablers such as paid carer’s leave and flexible working options.

Recent work from the Carer Poverty Commission has shown that workplace supports, and better provision of social care would help thousands of carers to remain in or re-enter the labour market.

Often when such supports are discussed the focus is on the cost to implement the policies however the research clearly shows the huge returns to business, government and the economy in such an approach.

Supporting unpaid carers to take up more paid employment through carer’s leave, flexible working and the provision of additional social care support could result in over £50m reduction in benefit expenditure and more than £124m raised in taxes with additional savings from employee retention.

Carers would also have more choice, be better off financially and have to “juggle” less reducing stress and improving their own mental and physical wellbeing.

Not only is there a strong moral case to support carers in this manner but the economic case clearly shows that benefits far outweigh the costs to implement such policies.

Surely this is a win win for everyone!

Read more about the research from the Carer Poverty Commission here

Angela Phillips is the Senior Policy Officer at Carers NI.