Carers Week theme - Caring About Equality

Caring About Equality

The theme for Carers Week 2025, Caring About Equality, highlights the inequalities facing unpaid carers in the UK today and the steps needed to create a fairer society for carers.

Unpaid carers are the backbone of our society, propping up fragile health and social care systems and providing essential care to friends and family who need their support. Despite carers’ huge contribution to our communities, many carers still feel undervalued and unsupported.

Inequalities can negatively impact all aspects of carers’ lives, putting carers at a greater risk of poor mental and physical health, social isolation, financial hardship, and poverty. Far too often, carers miss out on opportunities in their education, careers, or personal lives, just because of their caring role.

The inequalities that carers face mean that:

70% of carers have a long-term physical or mental health condition, disability or illness compared to 59% of non-carers (1)

the poverty rate for carers is 50 % higher than for people who do not provide care (2)

young adult carers are 38% less likely to achieve a university degree than their peers (3)

1 in 4 carers of working carers have had to take on a lower paid or more junior role. (4)

Carers should have the same life chances and opportunities as people without caring responsibilities. To make this happen, action is needed right across the board, with government, schools, colleges, universities, workplaces and health and social care services all having a vital role to play.

Together let’s strive for an equal society, where carers can fulfil their own aspirations and lead healthy and financially secure lives.

Get involved with Carers Week 2025 and join the call for greater equality for unpaid carers.

References:

1 GP Patient Survey, 2024.
2 Carers UK and WPI Economics, 2024, Poverty amongst unpaid carers in the UK.
3 Baowen Xue, Rebecca E. Lacey, Giorgio Di Gessa, Anne McMunn, 2023, Does providing informal care in young adulthood impact educational attainment and employment in the UK?
4 Carers UK, 2024, State of Caring 2024 - The impact of caring on employment.

“Equality means not being disadvantaged due to my caring role, being able to full take part in society in the same way as my friends who do not having a caring role.”