MILLIONS of unpaid carers have experienced “diminishing help” from councils and the government, a think tank has warned.

According to an analysis by Nuffield Trust, the number of carers receiving direct support from their local authority dropped by 11 per cent over five years from 121,000 in 2015-16 to 108,000 in 2020-21. 

Instead, councils have been signposting carers towards other information and support services, the think tank said. 

Access to breaks for carers, via funding allowing the cared-for person to be looked after by someone else, fell by 42 per cent over the same five-year period, the Nuffield Trust said, while local authority spending on services for carers has fallen by 11 per cent. 

It is estimated that there are 11.5 million people in Britain who give unpaid support to a family member or friend who is elderly, seriously ill or disabled, thus saving the government £193 billion a year, according to Carers UK. 

Nuffield Trust is calling on the new government to immediately improve support available for carers.

Without this, the reliance of the health and care system on unpaid carers “will become increasingly unstable,” it warned.

Senior fellow Charlotte Paddison said: “Over the last decade-and-a-half, politicians have talked the talk of supporting and recognising carers, with laudable policy statements and plans to support them. 

“But our work reveals a widening gulf between this rhetoric and the reality facing unpaid carers.

“As we experience the biggest cost-of-living squeeze in living memory, the need to address this has never been more pressing.”

The Carers Trust said the fall in support was inexcusable. “Around half [of carers] have had to give up paid work to do so, driving many of them into poverty before the cost-of-living crisis,” the charity’s director of policy and external affairs Joe Levenson said.

The trust echoed calls for emergency funding, including an increase in carer’s allowance in line with inflation.