“We are deeply worried by these latest findings. Unpaid carers are at breaking point, exhausted after more than two years of caring with little or no outside support. The impact on a social care system that was already on the brink of collapse before the pandemic means even more pressure on even more families who are propping up a chronic shortage of services.

“With hundreds of thousands of people now waiting for an assessment or service, sustainable funding for social care is essential, without which many thousands of carers and families will simply be unable to cope much longer. Together with the impact of the cost of living crisis, we’ll see the unacceptable inequalities that unpaid carers and their families already face, widen.”