UK’s ‘unsung army’ of full-time unpaid carers needs more support, report says

The thinktank said 1 million people in the poorest half of the country’s working-age families had caring responsibilities of 35 hours or more a week. Photograph: Pixel Youth movement/Alamy

A growing “unsung army” of 1 million people with full-time caring responsibilities needs better support, according to a report that found one in three unpaid carers from poorer backgrounds were unable to work because of their duties.

The trend is the result of an ageing society and rising ill-health and disability concentrated in the poorest half of the country’s working-age families, the Resolution Foundation’s research found.