Carers UK’s State of Caring 2025: The cost of caring—a large, in-depth study of unpaid carers in the UK—shows care intensifying while household finances, health and employment prospects are stretched to breaking point. The evidence speaks to an urgent need for a new settlement for carers.
State of Caring is Carers UK’s flagship annual survey, providing in-depth evidence on unpaid carers’ lived experiences and how rising caring intensity affects wellbeing, work and household budgets. This year’s report draws on the experiences of more than 10,500 carers. It reveals a pattern that is both stark and consistent: people are providing care for longer hours, and paying a growing personal price to do so.
Half (52%) of respondents say they are providing more hours of care than they were a year ago, signalling a steady intensification of need within households that social care services are not meeting. That intensification collides with squeezed budgets. The same proportion (49%) report cutting back on essentials—food, heating, clothing and transport—to keep caring going, while three-quarters are worried about their future financial security, including what happens when caring ends. The “cost of caring” is therefore both immediate—meeting today’s bills—and long term—foregone savings and pensions.
Work is a pressure point. Among working carers, 35% have reduced their hours; one in five have taken a lower-paid or more junior role. For many, flexibility comes at the price of progression. What begins as a pragmatic adjustment to manage care can harden into reduced earnings and narrower prospects, with consequences that persist long after caring changes or ends.
The health effects are unmistakable. Two in five say their physical health has worsened because of caring; a fifth report an injury linked to their role. Three-quarters feel stressed or anxious, with some experiencing panic attacks and disrupted sleep. Caring, in other words, is functioning as a social determinant of health—with costs inevitably reverberating across the NHS.
These findings do not emerge in a vacuum. They land amid continuing turbulence around financial support for carers and persistent gaps in social care. The result is a widening expectation–capacity gap that families are asked to bridge—often invisibly, and often at significant personal cost.
What should happen next
First, the UK needs a new, fully fledged National Carers Strategy with measurable goals. Support for carers must span health, care, work, housing and social security; a refreshed strategy should coordinate action across these areas and set clear, time-bound commitments—on income security, access to breaks, timely equipment and home support, and routes to remain in or return to work. It should also embed carers’ voices in design, delivery and accountability so that policy follows lived experience rather than administrative targets. The Centre for Care’s case for a new social contract with unpaid carers—centred on recognition, security and practical support—further develops this position, as outlined in our short overview, The urgent need for a new social contract for unpaid carers.
Second, sustained investment in social care is essential to prevent crisis. Funding must translate into practical help that families can feel: regular and reliable breaks, home adaptations and equipment, and responsive home-based care. Carer’s Assessments should lead to tangible support rather than signposting alone, enabling families to care safely without sacrificing essentials or their own health. This prevention focus is expanded in our short briefing on the role social care plays in averting avoidable crises.
Third, carers need financial support that reflects the real cost and intensity of caring. Benefits and entitlements should keep pace with living costs and the additional expenses caring brings, and the rules should be clear and fair so people aren’t pushed into debt or penalised for modest earnings alongside care. A commentary on just one part of the complex rules of Carer’s Allowance administration sets out why clearer, fairer rules are essential to prevent overpayments and hardship.
Fourth, the UK should introduce statutory paid Carer’s Leave and strengthen workplace support. Paid leave provides a predictable bridge at moments of acute need; combined with flexible working and carer-positive employment practice, it enables carers to stay in work and, crucially, to progress—not merely to hang on. The Centre for Care has set out how a paid entitlement could operate in practice and who would benefit in The Employment Rights Bill and the case for paid Carer’s Leave.
Fifth, the NHS needs a fresh new approach to supporting unpaid carers; a stronger and consistent recognition of unpaid carers throughout all of its operations and services. As care moves closer to home, whilst this could reduce some elements of caring and deliver a more personalised service, it also risks carers providing more care.
Finally, there should be formal recognition of caring within the Equality Act. Naming caring in equality legislation would provide a clearer lever for tackling discrimination and disadvantage linked to caring—whether in recruitment, job design and progression, or access to services. It would also signal that caring is a shared social responsibility, not a private problem for families to absorb alone.
Read the full report and summary of State of Caring 2025: The cost of caring – the impact of caring across carers’ lives.
About the authors
Emily leads on Carers UK policy, research and media work and was responsible for Carers UK’s Advice and Information services for 15 years. She has worked on numerous pieces of legislation, securing carers’ rights across welfare, pensions, social care, health, equalities and employment, with the most recent rights being the Carer’s Leave Act 2023 and changes to Carer’s Allowance such as the earnings limit rise in the last Budget.
Nathan Hughes is Professor of Adolescent Health and Justice, co-director of CIRCLE – the Centre for International Research on Care, Labour and Equalities – at the University of Sheffield.
He is Deputy Director of the Centre for Care, and lead for the Children and Families theme. This reflects his broad research interests in effective support to vulnerable young people, including those affected by health and developmental difficulties and those within the child protection system.
