Share this post:

Believe it or not, we are currently roughly in the middle of Carers’ Week — a time that has been set aside to acknowledge, celebrate, and support the millions of unpaid carers across the UK who prop up a social care system that is already stretched beyond breaking point.

(Full disclosure: This Writer used to be a carer so this matter is very close to my heart.)

But in an act of grim political irony, this year’s tribute to carers comes hand-in-hand with a series of brutal decisions by the Labour-In-Name-Only government that will, quite literally, make it harder for carers to survive — let alone care.

Welcome to Stab Carers in the Back Week.

The £4.8 billion cut to disability support

First, let’s remember the headline Labour’s keeping quiet about (for now): a £4.8 billion cut to Personal Independence Payment (PIP), the main disability benefit that helps people manage the extra costs of living with a disability.

PIP isn’t just a lifeline to disabled people — it’s the financial foundation that allows millions of carers to function. Without PIP:

• Disabled people lose the ability to pay for mobility aids, home support, and specialist equipment.

• Carers pick up the slack — physically, emotionally, and financially.

• Many carers lose access to Carer’s Allowance, because it’s linked to the cared-for person receiving PIP.

Let’s be blunt: if someone loses PIP, their carer may lose more than £4,200 a year. Multiply that by hundreds of thousands, and we’re looking at a silent economic crisis among the carer population.

No relief in the spending review

So what did the government offer carers in their first major financial statement?

• £555 million for children’s social care — spread over several years.

• A pledge to create a “fair pay agreement” for care sector workers — which seems good, but has no detail, timetable, or budget attached.

• Nothing for adult social care.

• Nothing for unpaid carers.

• No boost to Carer’s Allowance.

• No help with respite care.

• No relief from rising costs, energy bills, or transport cuts.

If you squint hard enough, you could almost believe Labour is trying to look like it’s supporting carers — while gutting the very systems that keep them afloat.

The devil in the language

It’s not just about money — though let’s be honest (and I have experience on my side, here) carers need money. It’s also about rhetoric.

Chancellor Rachel Reeves talks about “targeted” support, “means-testing,” and “reforming” benefits to focus on “genuine need.”

These are the same dog-whistle terms we heard under Osborne and Iain Duncan Smith, more than a decade ago.

They signal a shift from compassion to suspicion — from rights to rationing.

It’s a dangerous game. Framing disabled people as potential “fakers” or “workshy” inevitably casts their carers as enablers — or worse, burdens on the state.

Labour’s choice: fix social care or exploit it further

Unpaid carers save the Treasury an estimated £162 billion per year — more than the entire NHS budget.

But the state treats them as expendable.

Many carers:

• Can’t work full time.

• Can’t save for retirement.

• Can’t get respite.

• Can’t rely on a functioning NHS or care agency to back them up.

And now, thanks to these new cuts, they may soon not even be able to count on Carer’s Allowance.

How is this fair? How is this just? How is this Labour?

This isn’t reform it’s betrayal.

You don’t reform social care by stripping away the foundations.

You don’t support carers by taking away their support.

And you certainly don’t do it during Carers’ Week — when you’re supposed to be honouring them.

This week should have been about dignity, recognition, and investment in the people who carry the unbearable weight of a broken system on their shoulders.

Instead, Labour has chosen to mark it with silence, spin, and stealth cuts.

So let’s call it what it is.

Not Carers’ Week.

Stab Carers in the Back Week.

Share this post: