As Carers Week 2026 shines a spotlight on the contribution made by unpaid carers across the UK, attention is increasingly turning to the growing number of employees supporting loved ones through a cancer diagnosis. In this article, Russell Young, Commercial Director at Reframe Cancer, explores the growing need for structured support for cancer carers.
Cancer carers are quietly becoming one of the UK workforce’s most overlooked pressure points, yet most employers still treat caring as a peripheral wellbeing issue rather than a workforce sustainability issue. These carers are not a niche workforce group. They are managers, teachers, engineers, advisers, administrators and frontline staff holding businesses together while simultaneously holding families together.
Workplace absence amongst the working population of cancer carers, coupled with ever-rising cancer incidence and the recommendations of the Keep Britain Working report, are cementing the need for better workplace support for carers. And intermediaries and specialist providers are well placed to help.
Cancer incidence is rising across the UK. Today, more than 403,000 people are being diagnosed with cancer each year, equating to 1,100 people every day – one person every 80 seconds. These numbers will continue to increase, with over four million UK adults forecast to be living with cancer by 2030. With this increase, the number of working adults who are also cancer carers will rise.
This week marks National Carers Week, and there are currently over 1.1 million working adults in the UK who are also cancer carers. So whilst working full or part-time, they are also helping provide daily support to a loved one diagnosed with cancer.
Early intervention
As carers juggle the dual responsibilities of caring for someone with full or part-time work, fragmented workplace support and lack of early intervention can lead to emotional, mental and financial stress for carers. With the risk that the demands of caring for a loved one with cancer can impact their own health or make work unsustainable.
For many carers, lunch breaks become consultant calls, annual leave becomes chemotherapy transport, and evenings become second shifts. Our own research amongst working cancer carers has revealed the extent of what carers juggle daily. They are spending an average of 16 hours per week providing care as well as working in full and part-time employment, which equates to around 69 hours a month.
Over the course of a month, the average time carers take off work to undertake caring responsibilities is 3.5 days, which employers are aware of and informed about. Additionally, carers say that they take an extra 3 days using other leave, such as sick pay or holiday allowance. Combined, this means cancer carers are taking 6.5 days a month off work to support a loved one with cancer.
There is a big financial impact as well, with carers spending £401 a month on average on monthly expenses such as parking, transport and medical expenses, and this is just an average figure; for many carers, this can be a lot more.
On average, cancer carers have been providing care, whilst still working, for 12 months. The care provided can be far-reaching and include daily practical, physical, medical and emotional support. This can include: travelling to and co-ordinating medical appointments and cancer treatment sessions; administering medicines and collecting prescriptions; helping with daily living tasks, such as cleaning, bathing and feeding; as well as housework and helping with paying bills.
Carers are a vital part of the workforce, but they need the right support in place, because what they deal with day in and day out amounts to a huge amount of strain and pressure. Our own expert knowledge from providing personalised support programmes for those caring for a loved one with cancer has shown that carers need structured support throughout the entire cancer pathway.
This needs to be nurse-led to deliver impactful guidance that keeps carers in work and helps them cope with the vast amount of daily challenges they face.
Our Cancer Support Managers and Cancer Nurse Specialists offer clinical, emotional, financial and practical guidance that can cover anything from helping carers access respite services, to virtual support groups to help with financial guidance and applying for carers’ benefits to ease financial stress.
General wellbeing services play an important role, but cancer care often requires more specialist, consistent and practical support over many months. EAPs can only go so far and don’t deliver this level of tailored support, so the risk is that employers think they have this covered when the reality is they probably don’t. This can have big impacts on business.
The lack of structured, tailored intervention and a consistent plan can lead to carers leaving the workforce. Our research shows that 77% of cancer carers say being a carer has impacted their work and almost 4 in 10 (36%) say they want to move jobs due to a lack of employer support.
However, more than six in ten (65%) cancer carers say a dedicated cancer carer programme of support, as an employee benefit, would help them with their combined role of employee and carer.
With the Keep Britain Working recommendations currently in the Vanguard Phase (testing and learning), and with cancer numbers rising across the UK, if the UK is serious about keeping people economically active for longer, cancer carers cannot remain absent from workforce policy conversations. The time is now for employers to make sure they take this on board and adopt the structured programme of support cancer carers need.
