Millions of unpaid UK carers ‘living in agony’, says Louise Casey

Millions of unpaid carers in the UK are “living an agony” while propping up an outdated, fragmented and confusing social care system, Louise Casey , the head of the government’s adult social care commission, has said. Lady Casey, who is leading an independent review of adult social care, criticised a system that “still behaves as if we are living in 1948 and not 2026” by relying on female carers to plug gaps in services. She said it was no longer sustainable to depend on predominantly female unpaid carers and poorly paid care workers to hold the system together until they hit crisis point. Speaking at a Carers UK conference in London on Thursday, Casey said caring placed an enormous emotional burden on unpaid carers, who were primarily women “expected to absorb risk, stress and responsibility so the system doesn’t have to … This can’t go on any longer,” she said. Casey was commissioned by the government in January 2025 to lead a two-stage review of adult social care aimed at delivering Labour’s manifesto commitment to create a national care service. The first report is expected this year. She has previously warned that the adult social care system faces a “moment of reckoning” as it struggles to meet the needs of an ageing population and rising numbers of people living with chronic conditions such as dementia. …