Paying the price

Carers, poverty and social exclusion

Marilyn Howard, CPAG, 94 White Lion Street, London N1 9PF, 133 pages, paperback, £9.95

There are around 5.7 million people in the UK who provide unpaid care and support to someone - often a relative - who cannot manage alone because of their age, ill health or disability. It is estimated that this unpaid work saves the taxpayer £34 billion a year in health and social services costs.

Yet evidence from this survey shows that many carers face acute problems. Six out of 10 of those surveyed had been obliged to give up work altogether, while others had moved into paid part-time work.

But they not only suffer from serious poverty, but also from social exclusion. They could no longer participate in past social activities and they could not afford holidays or travel to family events and so on.

Though there have been a number of recent government initiatives, this book puts forward a series of recommendations for urgently needed improvements in the system.