OddsFrontMore than one million Britons left paid work to provide unpaid care in two years
New research estimates that about 1,500 people a day are leaving employment to care for relatives, sharpening pressure for paid carers’ leave and social-care reform.
Care responsibilities push workers out
More than one million people in Britain have left paid employment during the past two years to care for ageing, ill or disabled relatives, according to research reported by the Guardian. That works out at roughly 1,500 departures a day. The finding places unpaid care firmly in the labour-market debate: the loss is not only household income, but also experienced workers, pension contributions and tax revenue.
The pressure extends beyond resignations
The research says one in five employees, or about 6.7 million people, makes career or financial sacrifices while combining work and care. Twenty-two per cent of surveyed carers had reduced their working hours, while about one in ten had declined promotion or accepted a lower-paid role. Across the adult population, an estimated 11 million people report some unpaid caring responsibility.
Carers UK, which produced the research, estimates that the number leaving work to care has doubled over seven years and now carries an annual economic cost of £37 billion. The organisation wants a statutory entitlement to ten days of paid carers’ leave. It is also asking the independent review of adult social care led by Louise Casey to put employment retention and support for family carers at the centre of its recommendations.
Government policy recognises the risk
The UK government’s July action plan says caring can damage physical and mental health, financial stability and access to work. It records that 30% of unpaid carers in England provide at least 50 hours of care each week. The plan raises the Carer’s Allowance earnings threshold to £204 a week and says large employers are expected to prepare work-and-care action plans from spring 2027, subject to legislation.
The next policy test
Ministers are reviewing carers’ employment rights and considering paid leave, while also examining whether to replace the abrupt Carer’s Allowance earnings cutoff with a taper. The central question is whether those reforms arrive quickly enough to slow departures from the workforce. The forthcoming Casey review and the government’s final employment-rights response will show whether unpaid care is treated mainly as a benefit issue or as a structural labour, health and social-care challenge.