There are 6 million unpaid carers in the UK. Many of them are hardly ever able to take a break. Unlike paid workers, they have no legal right to any time off. Carers are exhausted. Not just physically from the long and often intense hours they spend looking after someone, but mentally and financially, too.

According to Carers Trust, a new study of 250 unpaid carers in England reveals that:

  • almost 1 in 3 (29%) rarely take a respite break,
  • 1 in 7 (15%) admitting they never take a break from their care duties
  • (67%) of Carers say planning a holiday feels like a pipe dream.

This lack of downtime leaves unpaid Carers reporting feelings of burnout (60%), frustration (47%) and depression (27%). As a result of their need to care around the clock, more than half (57%) of unpaid Carers surveyed rarely socialise with friends or family. While the average Brit takes 3.94 holidays a year, nearly a third (31%) of Carers say they’ve not had a holiday in more than four years.

The research also found the average time taken away from caring by unpaid carers each day is just 54 minutes, which equates to only 13 days in a year – nine days less than the legal requirement for paid workers in England who are working eight hours a day, five days a week.

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Join Carers Trust to call on the UK Government to make sure Carers can access a legal right to a break from their caring role.

This means:

  • Letting Carers take a break without having to fight for it
  • Councils proactively identify Carers who need a break and ensure it happens
  • Carers can access properly funded replacement care — and/or a funded break away
  • UK Government provides the funding local services and councils need to deliver this support
  • Learning from similar efforts elsewhere in the UK, such as the Care Reform (Scotland) Bill and Short Breaks Scheme (Wales).

Caring shouldn’t come at a cost to your health, your income, or your identity. The right to a break is essential to help carers keep going — and to protect the people they care for. It’s also vital for the NHS.

Three in five of us will become a carer in our lifetime. This is about all of us.

Sign the petition.
Stand with Carers.
Let’s give everyone the legal right to a break!

Sign the petition today!