Nicola Brimblecombe, Javiera Cartagena Farias
Providing unpaid care for people with support needs for ten or more hours a week or within the household is known to be associated with negative effects on people’s paid employment, mental health and wellbeing. The research that has been done on the links between this type of care and carer’s physical health has shown mixed results and there has been less research on carer’s social and financial outcomes. However, the biggest evidence gap is on how the effects on employment, health, social participation and finances vary among carers. This information is needed in order to understand what kinds of support are needed, who potentially needs more help, and how help can be targeted. Unpaid care makes up the majority of care provided and received and support for carers is an important issue for government (e.g. the 2014 Care Act) and for carers themselves and the people they support.
Our study looked at the effects of care provision of over ten hours a week or within-household care in combination with, separately, gender, ethnicity, highest educational qualification (as a measure of socio-economic status), and age. This helped us better understand who was most disadvantaged and how experiences differ. The study used nationally representative data collected over a number of years: the UK Household Longitudinal Study (UKHLS). It focused on people aged 16 and older providing unpaid care at time 1 (2017/19) of (a) ten or more hours a week; (b) within the household. The study looked only at carers providing higher care hours or co-resident carers because of previous research showing greater impacts at these levels and types of care provision. It then looked at how interaction of care provision and socio-demographic characteristics at time 1 was associated with a number of outcomes one year later. Outcomes included mental and physical health, social isolation, employment status, and earnings.
The researchers found that caring responsibilities interacted with gender, ethnicity, highest educational qualification, or age to affect carers differently in a number of areas of their lives leading to, and exacerbating, key disadvantages and inequalities. Female carers had poorer mental and physical health, were more likely to be socially isolated, and had lower earnings compared to male carers. Asian carers providing higher hours or within-household care experienced greater negative effects on health and on earnings than White carers. The interaction of caring responsibilities and lower educational qualification was associated with greater negative impacts on employment, health, social isolation, and earnings. Younger carers experienced poorer mental health and greater social isolation; older carers experienced poorer physical health.
Caring at higher hours or within the household has effects on people’s employment, health, social participation and financial situation. However, as our study shows, some people experience greater impacts than others. Our findings therefore reinforce the need for differentiated support for carers. One example is the need for mental ill health support and prevention for younger carers and physical ill health support and prevention for older carers. A further implication is the need to reduce or remove barriers to support for sub-groups of carer and to improve targeting. Because caring responsibilities are a contributory factor to poorer outcomes, good and targeted support for carers, including services for the person they care for, has an important role to play.
The research team are discussing our findings with carers and with policy-makers and hope to discuss them further with other carers, carer’s organisations, and social care professionals and to look for platforms for sharing the results online.
