Women ‘paying highest price’ for Tory’s failure to deliver social care reform, charities say

‘I don’t think there’s a day gone by in the last three years where I’ve not sat there and cried my eyes out,’ says Sarah, one of the sandwich carers who is looking after her parents while raising two children

Women are being signed off sick from work from the stress of caring for parents and children without support from social care (Getty)

Women are being left to shoulder the bulk of unpaid care work for two generations of their family because of the government’s failure to deliver promised reforms to social care, charities have said.

A report released by the charity Age UK shows that women make up 68 per cent of the UK’s 1.25 million “sandwich carers”, those caring for an older relative and children because of a lack of acceptable social care.

Friday marks International Women’s Day, but it is also two years since the government’s 2017 pledge to make social care financially sustainable and fit for the UK’s growing elderly population.

Over a quarter (27 per cent) of sandwich carers provide more than 10 hours of care a week, and one in 14 (7 per cent) are providing more than 35 hours a week, the charity’s “Breaking Point” report shows.

But women accounted for 84 per cent – nearly 75,000 people – of those providing 35 hours of unpaid care work a week.

This is creating unsustainable strain as increasing barriers to access social care for assistance with day to day tasks like washing and dressing means there is no respite from responsibilities.

“Two years on from the government’s promise to fix social care with a reforming green paper also marks International Women’s Day, and it is women who are often paying the highest price for ministers’ failure to act,” said Age UK director Caroline Abrahams.

“Given the intense pressure on them it’s amazing that more don’t experience a break down,” Ms Abrahams said. “But there’s no doubt many are coping with much more than it is reasonable to expect.”

She said the green paper, which has been delayed five times since it was first announced, was now “beyond a joke” and the cost is being born by millions of elderly or disabled people and their carers.

Meanwhile those caring for them are risking their “health, wellbeing and financial security” as a result, the charity said.

Tory austerity policies have heaped pressure on social care by cutting council budgets and the funding they have available despite soaring demand for services.

As the majority of sandwich carers are of working age, with a third between the ages of 35 and 44, their care responsibilities create pressures elsewhere.

Sarah is one of those who responded to the report – she had to sacrifice studying to be a nurse as she couldn’t juggle caring for her children and her mother, and the issue has left her at breaking point.

“It’s hard work, it’s exhausting,” she told Age UK. “I don’t think there’s a day gone by in the last three years where I’ve not sat there and cried my eyes out.”

The Alzheimer’s Society said it had supported women who had to be signed off sick from work with mental health issues because of the pressures of caring for both children and mothers with dementia.

“This latest data reinforces the extent to which hundreds of thousands of people, predominantly women, are propping up a broken care system,” Sally Copley, the charity’s director of policy said.

The government recently announced it was launching a national advertising campaign in a bid to fill 100,000 unfilled social care jobs, a situation which Brexit could make significantly worse.

However critics said that without reforming the wider system, so staff are paid a fair wage and feel valued, the campaign will fall flat.

Age UK has flagged how 50,000 people have died while still waiting to receive, or in some cases be assessed for, social care packages since the government pledged its green paper.

“Carers make an invaluable contribution to society by selflessly caring for friends and family and we recognise this must not come at the expense of their own health, wellbeing or employment,” a Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said

“We are working to support unpaid carers across the country, including helping them to stay in or find employment and ensuring hard-working carers have access to paid breaks or respite care. Our forthcoming green paper will look at long-term sustainable solutions for the social care system, including measures to support carers.”