Carers UK publish ‘State of Caring 2025: The cost of caring’
Carers UK has published ‘State of Caring 2025: The cost of caring – the impact of caring across carers’ lives’.
The report is based on the experiences of over 10,500 carers who shared their experiences with Carers UK following the call to complete their annual survey (that we reported on here: https://journalofdementiacare.co.uk/carers-uk-urge-unpaid-carers-to-participate-in-state-of-caring-survey-2025).
State of Caring 2025 documents the financial, health and wellbeing, employment and opportunity costs that unpaid carers are experiencing.
Key findings relating to health include:
- 71% of people caring for someone with dementia said the number of hours per week they spend caring has increased over the last 12 months
- 42% of respondents to the State of Caring survey say their physical health has worsened
- 74% say they feel stressed or anxious, with some unpaid carers experiencing panic attacks and being unable to sleep because of this.
In relation to the long-term effects of being an unpaid dementia carer, the report says:
“A qualitative academic study with people who previously cared for someone with dementia found that sleep disturbances in former carers continued for as long as 10 years post-caring, and many former carers reported ongoing illness or health conditions.”
There are quotes relating to dementia from unpaid carers within the report, including:
“The change in the dynamic of my relationship with my husband has been hard to come to terms with. We can’t have proper conversations about many of the important issues in our lives because of his dementia.”
You can read the report here: https://www.carersuk.org/media/upzd0h2y/state-of-caring-2025-cost-of-caring-report_v2.pdf