Family carers facing acute financial pressure - report

A new report has shown that family carers continue to face significant financial pressure, inadequate access to services, poor health and wellbeing and experience loneliness.

The State of Caring 2026 report was commissioned by the charity Family Carers Ireland, which supports an estimated 624,000 family carers across the country.

The report was based on responses from 2,930 current family carers caring for at least 4,042 children and adults.

It showed that 71% are finding it difficult to make ends meet, while almost half, 48%, experience severe loneliness.

Among family carers experiencing acute financial difficulty, almost half, 49%, said they are cutting back on essentials such as food and heating.

More than three quarters of respondents are reducing non-essential spending.

The report also found that of those in acute financial distress, 29% are behind on utility bills, while 15% are falling into arrears with rent or mortgage payments.

Dr Nikki Dunne, Research Manager with Family Carers Ireland, said: "Government must now recognise care at home as a core pillar of health and social care and properly resource it accordingly.

"It also means ensuring income adequacy for family carers and funding and delivering on its promise to build and fund robust services for family carers under the carer guarantee.

"This would include accessible counselling, and emergency supports, reliable respite, services where, when, and how they are needed, and practical day-to-day assistance to family carers wherever they may live.''

The report also highlighted the significant gaps in formal support, with 69% saying the person they care for does not receive enough.

Almost two-thirds of respondents reported being on a waiting list for publicly funded services such as therapies, wheelchairs, or Assessments of Need, with 66% of those waiting more than a year.

Catherine Rossiter, family carer for her twin children Aoife and Eoghan, aged 12, said: "Caring for a loved one is emotionally, physically, and psychologically challenging every day.

"Recent increases in the cost of living have placed a disproportionate financial pressure on carers.

"We struggle to manage our money and pay the extra bills that come with caring, such as additional heating costs to keep a home warm for our loved ones, or repaying loans for home adaptations.

"Telling us that we are 'great' for caring for our loved ones does not translate into tangible supports, services, or proper recognition.

"I often think my life is a test of human endurance. How much can I take as a carer before I break? What will happen to my young daughter and son then? The worry feels endless."

The report recommends abolishing the carer's allowance means test, moving towards a new family carer payment, increasing carer’s allowance and carer’s benefit to €325 per week, making carer payments tax exempt, introducing a cost of disability payment, extending fuel allowance to all carer’s allowance recipients and providing targeted support for households facing high care-related energy costs.

Dr Dunne said: "The results highlight not just the value of family care, but the State’s persistent failure to adequately fund and prioritise homecare and supports to family carers through a meaningful homecare scheme and a fully funded carer guarantee.

"Essential care is being delivered by family carers under conditions that are clearly not sustainable or fair.

"Without adequate investment, family care will continue to be treated as a low-cost substitute for proper public provision.

"The result is that family carers themselves bear the cost - through damaged health, severe social isolation, lost income, and diminished life opportunities - while the State avoids meeting its full responsibility."