Health Survey for England, 2022 Part 2

This report includes findings on the provision of unpaid social care by adults aged 16 and over in England in 2022. It covers the amount of care and who it is provided for, as well as the impact of providing unpaid care on the carer.

Detailed tables accompanying this report can be accessed here.

• In 2022, 18% of adults said they provided some form of unpaid social care. 
• One third (34%) of adults reported living with someone they provided care for, and two thirds (65%) reported providing care for someone outside of their household.
• The proportion of unpaid carers who received some support with the care they provided increased as the number of hours of care they provided in the last week increased.
• The impact of caring responsibilities on work was higher amongst women compared with men (30% and 18%).
• The proportion of adults who reported experiencing an impact on their health increased with the number of hours they spent caring in the last week (81% of those who provided 20 or more hours of care compared with 30% of those who provided less than 1 hour).

Social care is defined as providing help with personal care, domestic tasks, or social support. Social care can take a few different forms: formal care arranged and paid for by local authorities, privately paid for care, or unpaid care provided by the individual’s support network or other voluntary services. 

The 2014 Care Act details how care and support should be provided to adults in England with care needs. It also details support for unpaid carers including access to exercise facilities, respite care for their dependent(s), help with housework and transport, or electronic equipment for keeping in touch with friends and family. 

This report focuses on unpaid social care, rather than paid or organisational care. 

Questions about provision of care are included in alternate years of Health Survey for England, starting in 2011. All adults aged 16 and over were asked about the unpaid help and support that they had provided to others in the last month, due to a long-term physical or mental ill health problem, a disability, or problems relating to old age. They were also asked about the:

• Characteristics of the person or people they cared for
• Amount and type of care provided
• Impact of providing care on their own health and employment

Questions about care and support provided in a professional capacity, as part of a job, or on behalf of a voluntary organisation were not included. General childcare provided to children who do not need extra support was also not included.

In 2022, 18% of adults said they provided some form of unpaid social care. Women were more likely to provide unpaid care in the last month than men (20% compared with 16%).

Those aged 45 to 64 were more likely to provide unpaid care than other age groups (26% compared with 19% of those aged 65 and over and 12% of those aged 16 to 44). Women in the two younger age groups were more likely to provide care than men of the same age (13% of women aged 16 to 44 and 30% of women aged 45 to 64, compared with 10% and 22% of men).

Provision of unpaid social care has remained consistent over time (between 16% and 18% from 2011 to 2022).

For more information: Tables 1 and 2

The English Index of Multiple Deprivation (IMD) is a measure of area deprivation, based on 37 indicators, across seven domains of deprivation. IMD is a measure of the overall deprivation experienced by people living in a neighbourhood, although not everyone who lives in a deprived neighbourhood will be deprived themselves. To enable comparisons, areas are classified into quintiles (fifths). For further information about the IMD, see the HSE 2022 Methods.

Provision of unpaid social care did not differ by area deprivation.

For more information: Table 3

In 2022, half of adults who had provided unpaid care in the last month provided between 1 and 9 hours of care in the last week. 31% had provided 10 or more hours of care, 20% had provided 20 or more hours of care, and 9% had provided more than 50 hours of care. 

Women were more likely to provide 20 or more hours of care than men (24% compared with 16%), particularly in the younger age groups (28% compared with 12% of 16 to 44 year olds, and 24% compared with 17% of 45 to 65 year olds).

For more information: Table 4

Adults who provided unpaid care were asked for their relationship to the person or people they provide care for. In 2022 adults provided care for their:

• Mother or mother-in-law (37%)
• Father or father in-law (18%)
• Husband, wife, or partner (18%)
• Son or daughter (14%)

Women were more likely than men to provide care for their child (17% compared with 10%), and men were more likely than women to provide care for their partner (23% compared with 14%).

For more information: Table 5

Adults who provided unpaid care in the last month were asked whether they lived with the person or people they provided care for. Multiple responses were possible, such that someone could provide care for someone they lived with and someone else outside of their household, meaning that responses do not sum to 100%.

One third (34%) of adults reported living with someone they provided care for, and two thirds (65%) reported providing care for someone outside of their household. Women were more likely than men to report caring for someone outside of their household (67% and 63% respectively). In contrast, men were more likely than women to report caring for someone they lived with than someone outside of the household (36% and 32% respectively).

The proportion of adults living with those they provided unpaid care for increased as the number of hours of care provided increased, from 12% of those who provided less than 1 hour of care in the last week to 78% of those who provided 20 or more hours of care.

For more information: Table 6

Adults who provided unpaid care in the last month were asked whether they received different types of support with the care they provided. The most frequent source of support was other family members (32%) followed by friends or neighbours (12%).

More than half of unpaid carers (56%) reported that they received no support with the care they provided. This varied by age, with those aged 65 and over most likely to report not receiving any support, followed by those aged 16 to 44, with those aged between 45 and 64 the least likely to receive no support (68%, 58% and 48% respectively).

For more information: Table 7

The proportion of unpaid carers who received some support for the care they provided increased as the number of hours of care they provided in the last week increased. 30% of carers who provided 1 hour or less of care in the last week reported receiving at least one form of support. This increased to 63% among carers who provided care for 20 hours or more in the last week.

Help from other family members was the most common source of support across hours of care provided (from 20% of those who provided less than 1 hour of care to 45% of those who provided 20 or more hours). Those who provided 20 or more hours of care were more likely to receive all types of support.

For more information: Table 8

Adults aged 16 to 64 who provided care in the last month were asked whether their ability to take up or stay in employment had been affected by the help or support they had provided. One in four (25%) of adults reported that their work had been affected in some way.

Women were more likely than men to report that their work had been impacted by their caring responsibilities (30% and 18% respectively). They were also more likely than men to have left employment altogether (10% compared with 5%).

There was no variation in the impact of care on work by age.

For more information: Table 9

The proportion of unpaid carers who reported that their work was affected by their caring responsibilities increased as the number of hours of care they provided in the last week increased. 14% of those who provided less than 1 hour of care reported some impact on their work, compared with 53% of those who provided 10 or more hours of care.

This pattern was consistent across all impacts on work and for both men and women, except for changing to working from home. Among those who provided 10 or more hours of care, 24% reported leaving employment altogether, and 17% reported working fewer hours.

For more information: Table 10

Adults providing unpaid care in the last month were asked whether their health had been affected, in the last three months, by the help or support they had given. 51% of adults reported that their caring responsibilities had an impact on their health.

The most reported impacts on health were a general feeling of stress (34%), feeling tired (33%), and disturbed sleep (26%).

The proportion of adults who reported having their health affected by their caring responsibilities varied by age, with those aged 45 to 65 most likely to report an impact on their health (55% compared with 48% of those aged 16 to 44 and 65 and above).

There were no differences in the impact of caring responsibilities on health between men and women.

For more information: Table 11

The proportion of unpaid carers who reported that their health was affected in some way by their caring responsibilities increased as the number of hours of care they provided in the last week increased. 30% of adults who provided less than 1 hour of care in the last week reported that their health was impacted by their caring responsibilities compared with 81% of adults who provided 20 or more hours of care in the last week.

Over half of those who provided 20 or more hours of care in the last week reported feeling tired (66%), having disturbed sleep (58%), and a general feeling of stress (55%). Those who provided the most care were also more likely to report having developed their own health condition (7% of those who provided 20 or more hours, compared with between 0-3% of those who provided up to 19 hours).

For more information: Table 12