Liz Truss must deliver a crisis plan for millions of unpaid family carers when tackling the cost of living crisis

Responding to Liz Truss’s victory in the Conservative Party leadership election and becoming Prime Minister, Carers Trust’s CEO Kirsty McHugh said:

“At the top of new Prime Minister Liz Truss’s agenda for tackling the cost of living crisis must be an urgent plan to get immediate additional financial support to the UK’s seven million unpaid family carers.

“Around half of all unpaid carers have had to give up work because they are spending long hours at home caring for sick and disabled family members. This plunged many of them into financial hardship long before the current cost of living crisis. However, despite the Government relying on those same unpaid carers to prop up our health and social care systems, millions of unpaid carers on Carer’s Allowance were recently locked out of additional government support payments of £650.

“There’s a real political opportunity for the new Prime Minister to come up with an urgent crisis and support plan for unpaid carers that would have two major benefits. It would reduce the risk of large numbers of exhausted unpaid carers being unable to continue their caring role and piling pressure back on to our over-stretched health and social care services. It would also alleviate some of the financial pressures affecting millions of people whose caring roles have made them especially vulnerable to the cost-of-living crisis.

“Additional and urgent support for unpaid carers needs to be accompanied by an emergency plan to support local carer organisations - vital charities who do so much in communities across the UK to support unpaid carers. Many are already facing a recruitment crisis and are now worrying about how they will be able to meet steeply rising costs to keep up their invaluable work.

“Carers Trust stands ready to support Liz Truss’s new Government in any way we can to develop a crisis plan for unpaid carers, as well as a longer-term national strategy for better supporting unpaid carers and local carer organisations.”

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For further information please contact: 

Matt Whitticase on mwhitticase@carers.org and 07824 539481. 

About Carers Trust

Carers Trust is the UK charity working to transform the lives of unpaid carers across the UK.  It partners with its network of local carer organisations to provide funding and support, deliver innovative and evidence-based programmes and raise awareness & influence policy.​ Carers Trust’s vision is that unpaid carers are heard and valued, with access to support, advice and resources to enable them to live fulfilled lives.