Unpaid elderly carers save system £23bn a year, claims Age UK

Nearly a third of people aged 80-and-over collectively provide 23 million hours of unpaid care a week, according to new analysis by Age UK.

The charity said the figure adds up to 1.2 billion hours of unpaid care work each year, saving the health and care system £23bn annually.

About 71% of carers aged 80+ have long-standing health problems, while 46% have difficulty moving about at home or walking, Age UK said.

The number of carers within the same age bracket has increased by 23% to 970,000 since 2010, according to the charity.

Age UK director Caroline Abrahams accused the government of “exploiting” the goodwill of elderly carers by “failing to sort out” the social care system.

She said: “The burden placed on these older carers’ shoulders is not only physical and emotional but financial too, because after years of government underfunding so many older people who need care are having to pay for it themselves, wiping out the savings they’ve worked had for all their lives and sometimes resulting in the family home having to be sold.

“The prime minister has promised to fix care and now he needs to follow through, with no more excuses or delays, surely it’s the least our brilliant older carers deserve.”

The Conservative Party pledged in its election manifesto to commit a further £1bn per year for social care and an additional £34bn in cash terms, including inflation, for the NHS to spend annually by 2024.

Age UK said 24% of carers aged 80 and above are supporting someone else for more than 35 hours a week, while 13% do so for more than 20 hours per week.

Meanwhile, the number of carers aged 65 and over providing informal care for another person has increased from 2.7m to 3.3m in the past eight years, the charity said.

The charity’s analysis used data from the UK Household Longitudinal Study and the ONS mid-year population estimates.