Written by Jess Plant

When people hear the word “carer” they may picture someone who helps a person for a few hours a week with meals and medication. Caring for my Mum who lived with chronic mental health conditions and chronic physical health conditions including dementia wasn’t part time. It became and was my whole life. I wasn’t just her daughter, I was her advocate, her admin assistant, her company, her nurse, and her safety net. 

And I did it essentially for free.  

Being an unpaid carer in the UK often means carrying an unimaginable load, emotionally, financially and physically, with very little recognition and support. The theme of this year’s Carers Week, “Caring About Equality”, resonates deeply with me. Like many unpaid carers I loved (and love) my Mum dearly, but this love almost seems to be misused and depended on too much by public services, as they know that we, as unpaid carers, cannot not and will not abandon the loved ones that we care for, even though we often sacrifice so much to do it.  

For me, caring had an impact on my health, and also, overtime it made my world smaller. Being an unpaid carer also has a financial impact. Carers Allowance is £83.30 each week for a minimum of 35 hours care each week, which works out at just £2.38, although many carers effectively work 24 hours a day with no breaks or holidays.  

Unpaid carers seem to be propping up a broken social care system. Most of the time we are invisible. Often there seems to be the silent expectation that we will give everything, our energy, our future, and our time, to support the person, without complaint. Most of the time unpaid carers do it because we love the person we are caring for. Love and being an unpaid carer shouldn’t mean poorer health, poverty, and social isolation. It shouldn’t mean being left behind or the feeling of being left out of society. 

If people truly care about equality and creating an inclusive society, carers need more that kind words, platitudes, and themed words, as good as they can be for awareness raising. We need access to suitable mental and physical healthcare, better financial support, better recognition, and proper respite. We also need careers that can adapt to the reality of caring.  

We need all of this because unpaid carers aren’t rare. There are 5.8 million unpaid carers in the UK, and 1.7 million of these provide 50 or more hours of care each week. Unpaid carers are everywhere. We are your colleague, your friend, and your neighbour. We are those getting up at night to help people use the toilet, helping people managing medication, helping people cooking, and helping people navigate complex health and social care systems.  

If we really care about equality, carers need to be at the centre of the conversation, because without unpaid carers the whole health and social care system would collapse. We need to start listening to carers who often know the person they support best and start building real effective support.