Number of Full-Time Unpaid Carers Soars by 70 Per Cent- Now at “Breaking Point”

England’s social care system is at breaking point, with rising demand, shrinking supply, and growing reliance on unpaid carers, according to a new paper for the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR).

New analysis for the report, conducted by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, finds a significant increase in full-time unpaid carers. The number of people providing 35 hours or more a week of care has increased from 1.1 million in 2003/04 to 1.9 million in 2023/24 – an increase of over 70 per cent.

As the number of unpaid carers grows, so do new requests for care. Fresh research reveals that the quantity of new requests for support increased from 1.8 million in 2015/16 to 2.1 million in 2023/24. Much of this is coming from working age adults increasingly needing care. Requests from those aged 16-64 grew by 31.5 per cent, compared to a 9 per cent rise from those aged 65 and over.

Despite the increase in need for care, the amount of people receiving care has not increased proportionally. New findings highlight a 15 per cent rise in people requesting some form of adult social care has only been met with a 2.5 per cent increase in those receiving it.

The report says that unpaid care – whether by parents, spouses or adult children, and most frequently women – is relied on too heavily to fill in the gaps of the inadequate and expensive adult social care system.

The government’s commitment to set up a National Care Service, which is being led by the Casey Commission, must tackle the profound challenges of an ageing and changing population, a retention crisis in the care workforce, and the key issue of funding.

As previous attempts at reform have been thwarted by the lack of a sustainable funding model, and in recognition of the changing demands on public services, the author of the report rejects the proposal for universal free care, instead recommending that the state funds more support and individuals pay what they can afford. The proposals for a new plan to rescue and rebuild care include:

• A fair funding model – moving to a “progressive universalist” system where care is affordable for everyone
• Fair pay agreements for care workers – ending poverty wages and professionalising the workforce to tackle staff shortages
• Support for unpaid carers – through workplace rights, income protection and paid care leave

Sir Ed Davey, leader of the Liberal Democrats, said: “I’ve been a carer for most of my life. First as a teenager, nursing my mum during her long battle against bone cancer. Later for my Nanna, organising her care and trying to make her last few years as comfortable as we could. And now for our son John.

“That’s what family is all about: caring for our loved ones. You can hear it in the conversations around every kitchen table, but not often enough around the Cabinet table. And when Ministers do turn their attention to care, they too often focus only on care homes, nurseries, care workers, childminders, and how they are funded. Those are crucial, but they are only part of the picture.

“Most care happens not in care homes but in people’s homes; provided not by paid care staff but by family members and other loved ones. Parents and grandparents, husbands and wives, siblings and children. We don’t talk about it much, but we are a nation of carers.

“So the answers to the care crisis can’t just be about tinkering with the formal systems of childcare and social care as they exist today. We need to take a step back as a country and ask some more fundamental questions about how we can better support families.”

Abby Jitendra, author of the IPPR discussion paper and principal policy adviser at JRF, said:

“Millions of us are carers or need care, and this number will surge in the future. But families are being left to navigate a neglected system – paying sky-high costs, sacrificing work to care, and too often going without the support they need. We need to build a care system that works like a public service: universal, affordable, reliable and fair. That means bold reform now – not another decade of drift.”

Dr Parth Patel, associate director at IPPR, said: “We all want and need more care in our lives — yet there are fewer people to provide it. Who will care is one of the great challenges of our age. This is not just a question of tax and spend, but of dignity and mutual obligation.

“The left too often romanticises the Scandinavian model, while the right still treats care as women’s work. Neither will do. Each of us has a duty to care — for our children, our parents, and our neighbours. Most of us actually find it rewarding, and would do more of it if only we had the time.

“That is what a National Care Service must recognise and support: helping us look after one another. And that means bringing a new set of policies into the care conversation — from flexible working hours and paternity leave, to stronger commitments on affordable, high-quality care services.”