From Carers UK

As we approach a UK General Election, it is vital that we use carers' voices to campaign for change from the next UK Government and from Governments in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.

Our annual State of Caring survey is the most extensive survey into carers’ experiences in the UK. Last year over 11,000 carers shared their experiences with us – but with your help, we can reach even more this year. With a new UK Government, there has never been a more important time to make sure that carers have a high profile and get concrete change.

 Last year we used carers’ responses to:

• make several recommendations to prevent carer poverty through our newly launched Carer Poverty Coalition, a group of 130 national and local organisations which recently published a manifesto on supporting carers facing financial hardship
• inform our recently published manifesto calling on political parties to commit to a new social contract for unpaid carers
• inform a new report we published with the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Carers which called for a National Carers Strategy
• successfully campaign for new legislation allowing carers to take unpaid carers leave and to set down a good evidence base for the implementation of the Carer’s Leave Act 2023
• campaign on overpayments of Carer’s Allowance, making the case for change leading to some commitments from Government to improve processes – although there is more to do on this
• campaign on carers’ rights, where more progress needs to be made to ensure carers get the support they are entitled to.

In addition, the results from last year have been discussed on national TV shows, as well as local BBC radio, and in many national and local newspapers, raising the profile of unpaid caring across the UK, with carers’ voices and experiences at the heart of all of this coverage.

This year, the survey covers issues and areas that carers have told us that matter to them. Please share this survey with your contacts locally, and fill it in if you are a carer yourself.

The survey will close on 11 August and we will be sharing the results later in the year.

If you have any questions about the research, please get in touch with our policy team by emailing policy@carersuk.org