Breaks or breakdown: Carers Week 2021 report

Fewer than one in five (14%) exhausted unpaid carers are confident that the support they receive with caring will continue following the COVID-19 pandemic. After an extraordinarily challenging year providing many more hours of care for loved ones during the pandemic - coping with reduced support from health and care services as well as limited help from family and friends - unpaid carers are seriously worried about the support they will have to help them care in the future. Research released for Carers Week has found that carers lost, on average, 25 hours of support a month they previously had from services or family and friends before the pandemic. 72% of carers have not had any breaks from their caring role at all. Of those who got a break, a third (33%) used the time to complete practical tasks or housework, and a quarter (26%) to attend their own medical appointments. Three quarters (74%) reported being exhausted as a result of caring during the pandemic, and more than a third (35%) said they feel unable to manage their unpaid caring role. The six charities supporting Carers Week - Carers UK, Age UK, Carers Trust, Motor Neurone Disease Association, Oxfam GB and Rethink Mental Illness - are calling on the UK Government to provide £1.2 billion funding for unpaid carers’ breaks, so that those providing upwards of 50 hours of care are able to take time off for their own health and wellbeing.