Carer's Allowance

Department for Work and Pensions written question – answered at on 13 December 2018.

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Photo of Chi Onwurah Chi Onwurah Shadow Minister (Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy) (Industrial Strategy)

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 20 November 2018 to Question 191917 on Carer's Allowance, whether her Department has made an estimate of the number of (a) pensioners and (b) students in full-time education who have taken on significant caring responsibilities.

Photo of Sarah Newton Sarah Newton The Minister of State, Department for Work and Pensions

The data that the Department uses with regards to informal carers is from the Family Resources Survey. The latest Family Resources Survey data is for 2016/17. This report and the carers data tables can be found at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/family-resources-survey-financial-year-201617

There were an estimated 5.4 million informal carers in the United Kingdom in 2016/17 available on “Table 5.1: Percentage of people providing informal care by gender, 2006/07 to 2016/17, United Kingdom”.

10 per cent of people aged 65+ reported providing informal care. Further age splits are available on “Table 5.2: Percentage of people providing informal care by age and gender, 2016/17, United Kingdom”.

The FRS data on people providing informal care is self-reported by FRS respondents.

This data is for all informal carers aged 65+, we have not made an assumption regarding what constitutes ‘significant’ caring responsibilities.

On “Table 5.4: Adult informal carers by employment status and gender, 2016/17, United Kingdom”, 1 per cent of all adult informal carers are classed as being a student, by their employment status.

The FRS data on people providing informal care is self-reported by FRS respondents.

This data is for all adult informal carers, we have not made an assumption regarding what constitutes ‘significant’ caring responsibilities.

This data is not specifically for students in full-time education and may include students on sandwich courses. 2 per cent of all adults are classed as being students. The FRS uses the International Labour Organisation (ILO) definition of employment status and defines a student as a subcategory of Economically Inactive. By ILO definition, a full-time student that works more than an hour a week would be classed as employed.

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