'Employers should take a chance on unpaid carers'

A woman who gave up her job to look after her autistic child has urged employers to be more accommodating and open-minded towards unpaid carers.

Elizabeth Dew, from Sheffield, said she had to quit her full time position in 2014, two years after the birth of her son.

Now working again part-time she said she wanted to "challenge the misconception that a carer is going to be a burden on the workplace".

She spoke as new research by the University of Sheffield suggested there were more than five million unpaid carers in England and Wales.

Ms Dew said she had hoped to "pick her career up again" sooner, but her son's needs became more demanding over time.

She said she claimed Universal Credit to "top up" her income, but it "barely" covered their needs.

"There's no recognition that I'm doing the work that someone else isn't doing - it's unpaid and unrecognised work," she said.

"I don't begrudge my children, but it would be really great to have a recognition that it's more than your average parent and I've missed out on earning as much as I potentially could be."

According to the university's Centre for Care unpaid carers are providing more hours of care than ever before.

It said the number of carers who provided 50 hours of unpaid care per week had increased from 24% to 30% between 2011 and 2021 - equivalent to £162bn of care a year.

As part of Carers Week, the centre launched a digital dashboard to compare data on unpaid carers collected by the Office for National Statistics in England and Wales.

Ms Dew said she would like to see "more flexibility in the workplace" for carers and a statutory right to paid carer's leave, having previously had to take unpaid leave she "couldn't afford".

She added carers are "often fantastic employees".

"We have so much experience from juggling all kinds of different situations, and we can often be excellent at problem solving and time management," she said.

A government spokesperson said: "We recognise the immense contribution of carers who selflessly dedicate their time to ing others.

"We want families to receive the they deserve which is why we have increased the Carer's Allowance earnings threshold by around an additional £2,000 a year – the biggest rise since it was introduced in 1976.

"We have also launched an independent review into social care, which will include exploring the needs of unpaid carers who provide vital care and ."

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