Unpaid carers in Scotland are saving the taxpayer more than £40m every day by giving their time to look after relatives and friends who are older, disabled and seriously ill, according to a new report.

A charity is estimating that the total cost of all the care provided by families in Scotland since the start of the pandemic adds up to just under £11bn – nearly equal to the budget for Scotland’s frontline NHS in a normal year.

There are now more than one million people in Scotland who regularly provide unpaid support after the number rose during the pandemic.

Most are not eligible to receive cash help from the government.

Yesterday a new campaign, backed by Still Game star Jane McCarry, launched to encourage Scots who care for someone to reach out for emotional and practical support.

New figures, published today to mark Carers Rights Day, reveal the “enormous” contribution made by carers.

Charity Carers UK calculates that the care provided by carers since the start of the pandemic would have cost £135bn – which equals more than £500m a day – if it had had to be paid for by the state.

This works out as £111bn for England, £11bn for Scotland and £8bn for Wales, with Northern Ireland adding another £5bn.

The figures were calculated by using Office for National Statistics research, polling on the number of hours regularly provided and University of Kent research on the hourly cost of care.

In Scotland, nearly nine in ten carers say they have had to do more during the pandemic and eight in ten are feeling ‘exhausted and worn out’ as a result.

Last week Scotland’s National Clinical Director Jason Leitch suggested there will be no return to a blanket policy of asking the most vulnerable to shield.

Carers Scotland is urging the Scottish government to provide additional support over winter amid fears carers are at “breaking point”.

Director Simon Hodgson said: “It is vital that the Scottish Government and local partnerships ensure that services they need to sustain caring and their health and wellbeing – are reinstated as soon as possible. 

“We recognise the specific challenges of the pandemic but are clear that, where it is not possible to reinstate traditional services, alternatives should always be offered to ensure that carers do not continue to feel they have been left to struggle on alone.“

The charity has welcomed top-up payments to carers benefits announced by the Scottish government – but Mr Hodgson says they are calling for more support in the coming months:

“The Scottish Government must acknowledge the enormous contribution made by carers during this pandemic – the value of which is a staggering £43m every single day – and prioritise their health, wellbeing and resilience this winter.”

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