“We agree with CSCI that ‘support for unpaid carers remains one of the biggest public policy challenges of our time’.  We believe that the response to date from government and care service commissioners is insufficient to meet the rising need in the population.

“Carers are the mainstay of social care. Carers have been telling our helpline CarersLine for months that eligibility criteria are being tightened, leaving disabled and elderly people with reduced services and requiring families to meet the additional need from their own pockets.  Providing limited services only to those in critical need is a firefighting measure that will not address the longer term needs of an ageing population with more complex needs.

“As the foreword to the report notes, “the options for people who do not meet the criteria set by their local council are limited.”  Too often carers are left to struggle alone, often putting their own health and wellbeing at risk.

“Carers are already more likely to suffer ill-health than those without a caring responsibility and one in five carers has been forced to give up work. This reduces their ability to build up pension contributions, putting them at risk of poverty in old age. Cutbacks to local services risk carers’ abilities to live the normal lives which most people take for granted.

“Too few councils are taking a strategic approach to supporting carers and there is a lack of focus on equal opportunities. In many parts of the country support for carers needs to be radically re-thought.“

This report backs up Carers UK’s call for a thorough and honest debate about the future funding of social care. Imelda Redmond recently co-signed a letter to the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Gordon Brown MP, with other leading charities and think tanks which called for increased funding for adult social care in the forthcoming Comprehensive Spending Review.

Spokespeople and case studies are available.

Contact: Kate Groucutt, Carers UK . 020 7566 7616 M. 07899 383 445 or

Tom Hoyle/Patricia Orr.  M. 07764 479389/07889 140139

To access the CSCI report, click here