Carers are losing an average £6,400 a year in annual salary by cutting work to support elderly loved ones, research by Just Group has revealed.

The results come after 31% of people aged 45 to 75 who are providing informal care to elderly family members said they had reduced their working hours or had stopped work, costing them thousands of pounds of lost income and undermining future career progression.

Just Group found that 10% of 1,000 carers surveyed had given up work completely, while a further 21% had reduced their working hours.

Of those who had stopped or reduced work, 24% said it had cost them up to £200 a month, while 34% said it had cost between £201 to £500 a month.

However, the average amount in lost salary was nearly £539 a month, equating to £6,468 a year.

Furthermore, one in six (17%) said that it had cost them more than £1,000 a month.

Group communications director at Just Group, Stephen Lowe, said: "Caring for an elderly relative can be personally rewarding but is often a sacrifice in terms of income from employment where people stop work, reduce their hours or move to more flexible but less well paid positions.

"The economic benefit to the country from informal care is put at billions of pounds a year. But the vast majority of workers receive no direct support for the hours of caring they put in. It is literally a labour of love."

The carer’s allowance is aimed at helping those providing informal care to elderly relatives, which in the current tax year is worth £81.90 a week, totalling £4,259 a year to those providing at least 35 hours a week care for a severely disabled person.

However, this is provided that the carer’s earnings are less than £151 a week, and the benefit is removed for earnings above this level.

One in five (20%) carers who had reduced or stopped work said they received the allowance, while nearly half (47%) said they knew about the benefit but did not claim it.

A quarter had heard of it but were not sure how it worked, while the remaining 9% said they had never heard of it.

The allowance is set to rise to £83.29 from April 2025, with the Government saying that 60,000 more carers will be eligible for the benefit by 2029/30, while the 1.4 million currently claiming will be able to earn more form work before losing eligibility.

The Government is also reviewing the ‘cliff edge’ approach that removes all the benefit if working hours exceed the limits.

Lowe concluded: "The amount of income and opportunity being lost due to people caring is immense, not just at a personal level but for the country as a whole in terms of lower economic activity and productivity.

"It reinforces the importance of putting in place a permanent ‘fix’ for social care. The more that people are able to plan and pay for themselves to receive the care they aspire to, the less the responsibility on family members and the country as a whole to look after them."

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