Who cares for UK's 6 million employed carers?

According to research from Unum UK, in spring 2022 21% of workers said they were in the ‘sandwich generation’,¹ caring for both young children and ageing relatives.

When you map that onto the UK’s population of 28 million or so full- and part-time employees — 28 million or so at the time — it means almost 6 million people juggle work with dual caring responsibilities.

That’s before considering many carers may fall outside the sandwich generation, caring for just young children or just ageing relatives, or are self-employed. The true number of working carers is therefore likely even higher.

Unpaid carers are worth £162 billion a year in England and Wales.² They play such an important and valuable role — and not only for the family, friends and neighbours they help live longer in the community. Their efforts support the economy, the NHS and our social care system.

But who cares for carers?

The difficulties carers face

According to Unum’s research, the strain of being in the sandwich generation takes a toll on carers’ mental, financial and even physical health. Among sandwich generation workers:

• 35% say caring has impacted their mental health
• 29% say it’s impacted their financial health
• 25% feel it has affected their physical health.

Meanwhile, 13% reported feeling forced to leave an unsupportive employer who didn’t understand their caring role.

Indeed, Carers UK reveals that around 600 people in the UK give up work each day to care for an older or disabled relative. This means forgoing an income and relying on benefits such as Carer’s Allowance — the lowest benefit of its kind.

To get Carer’s Allowance in 2022/23, you cannot earn more than £139 per week. That means the almost 950,000 working-age people receiving Carer’s Allowance³ have a de facto cap on their take-home, earned income of just over £7,000 each year if they want to keep their benefit.

Even for those receiving Carers Allowance, they receive £76.75 per week — providing they’re caring for someone at least 35 hours per week. That’s £2.19 per hour. For contrast, the National Living Wage for a person aged 23+ is £10.42.

How does caring impact work?

For those still trying to juggle work and caring, 20% of sandwich generation workers admit they’re less productive at work due to their caring responsibilities. 24% of such workers indicate caring has caused them to take time off work, while caring responsibilities pushed a further 16% to take time off sick.

This fits with a report by Public Health England that found carers are at a higher risk of illnesses, in particular musculoskeletal conditions, cardiovascular disease and poor sleep.⁴

How can managers help?

Carers who have to give up work not only face financial difficulties. Giving up work can also be detrimental to their mental health, self-worth and self-esteem.

Yet despite this, 31% of sandwich generation workers say their employer poorly understands their caring responsibilities. Furthermore, fewer than a third of sandwich generation staff receive help from their employer with their caring responsibilities in the form of remote working when required, emergency leave to care for ill dependents or an employee assistance programme (EAP).

And more than 1 in 5 sandwich generation employees (21%) said that their employer offered no support at all.

The benefits of making workplaces more carer-friendly

Providing the right support can help businesses retain valuable talent, expertise and experience. However, this relies on knowing who in your business is a carer and making efforts to understand what this means for them.

Does your business have a culture of openness that encourages employees to ask for help if they need it? For some companies, it may work to ask employees outright if they have caring responsibilities and how you can support them. 

If you feel employees would be more comfortable sharing anonymously, consider an anonymous survey asking if they are carers and how you can support them.

As a starter, some of the other actions employees wanted to see to improve support for the sandwich generation were:

• Improving flexible working arrangements (43%)
• Creating a specific support programme, including signposting to external care (35%)
• Improving/providing resources for life and wellbeing support (31%)
• Providing childcare resources, for example on-site childcare or financial support for childcare (31%)
• Improving/giving access to mental health assistance (26%).