Helping carers to stay in employment would save the Exchequer over a billion pounds a year

As the future direction of social care hangs in the balance until next year, Linda Pickard highlights the issue of unpaid care in England. She estimates unpaid care costs England £1.3 billion a year. Greater funding for social care, she argues, is the greatest deterrent to this loss of revenue experienced when family or friends leave unemployment to provide care for people with disabilities or the elderly.