The life and times of an unpaid carer.

We often talk about listening, inclusion, and empathy, but one of the most powerful ways to show respect is by recognising a person’s lived experience. Lived experience is the knowledge, understanding, and insight gained through personally navigating life’s challenges, opportunities, successes, and setbacks. When people feel their experiences are respected rather than dismissed, it can…

In a country that prides itself on fairness and compassion, thousands of unpaid carers are facing an impossible choice every day: feed the person they care for, or feed themselves. The evidence gathered by the Right to Food Commission paints a stark picture of a hidden crisis. Across the UK, unpaid carers are skipping meals,…

For too long, the public conversation around disability benefits and Personal Independence Payment (PIP) has been dominated by myths, misinformation and harmful stereotypes. Headlines often focus on cost rather than need. Commentators speak about disabled people without listening to disabled people. Political rhetoric can reduce complex human experiences to simple narratives that fuel division rather…

World Suicide Prevention Day reminds us that some of the greatest struggles are often hidden from view. For unpaid carers, those struggles can be relentless. Across the UK, millions of unpaid carers provide support to family members, partners and friends who are disabled, ill, frail or living with long-term health conditions. They do so out…

Every morning, millions of people wake up and begin work before sunrise. They prepare medication, assist with personal care, organise appointments, provide emotional support, manage finances, coordinate services, and remain on call throughout the day and often throughout the night. Most of them will never receive a payslip. They are unpaid carers, and collectively they…

Disabled people are not a single story. We are millions of stories, different bodies, different minds, different needs, different journeys. And yet, despite the vast diversity within disability, there is a thread that binds us together with remarkable force: unity. Not unity built on identical experiences. Not unity built on agreeing about everything. But unity…

Over recent weeks, public debate has centred on the Welsh Government’s “first 100 days”, a political tradition used to demonstrate intent, signal priorities, and present early delivery. Statements are issued, commitments are highlighted, and momentum is framed through ministerial announcements. But for unpaid carers, one hundred days is not a political milestone.It is a lived…

For years, politicians have promised that the era of spiralling energy bills would come to an end. Yet today, as Ofgem prepares to announce a 4% increase to the energy price cap, households across the UK are bracing for another winter defined not by comfort or security, but by fear. According to Cornwall Insight, this…

Every functioning society depends on care. It is the quiet, continuous labour that sustains health, dignity, and daily life. Yet the majority of that care, supporting disabled people, older relatives, partners with chronic illness, children with complex needs is provided not by paid professionals, but by unpaid carers. They are the backbone of social care,…