Introduction

Age was central to how the COVID-19 pandemic unfolded, right from the start. In its initial responses in the early spring of 2020 – through the Coronavirus Act 2020 and surrounding measures – the UK government deployed chronological age as a marker, with the whole of the UK population over 70 identified as particularly vulnerable to the disease and subject to peremptory quarantine directives and restricted freedoms. These steps affected family members caring for people in this category – either indirectly, through their connection to the person they care for, or (also) directly, as many family carers are themselves over 70. The wellbeing of unpaid family carers has been very importantly at stake, in considering the implications of policy responses to the pandemic. Yet their position is largely hidden. So, while research evidence is beginning to gather on the impact of COVID-19 in relation to care, and particularly health care, little is known about the impact of the virus on people giving and receiving care in community settings (Woolham et al, 2020). While it has become something of a cliché to say that the experience of the pandemic has laid bare hitherto under-recognised patterns of disadvantage, the light still only rarely shines on the situations of family carers.

This absence of attention is critical, for two reasons. First, the role of family carers is growing and becoming more pivotal. Across Europe, there is an increasing reliance on family carers to provide essential care services to older and disabled people living in the community (Saraceno and Keck, 2010; Cooney and Dykstra, 2011; Kodate and Timonen, 2017). There is, however, wide variation in terms of intensity and care hours provided by unpaid carers to older people, and research evidence shows a strong North–South gradient, with the southern countries of Italy and Spain reliant on unpaid care the most, and northern Belgium, Denmark, Netherlands and Sweden depending upon family carers the least (Barczyk and Kredler, 2019). Country-specific welfare policies responding to increasing longevity have also followed disparate paths (Greve, 2016; Spasova et al, 2018). In some countries, such as Germany, new policies and systems have been introduced, while in the UK severe austerity-related cuts have been initiated (Glendinning, 2017), and these have intensified pressure on family carers (Care Quality Commission, 2017). Secondly, a large body of academic evidence demonstrates that family carers are subject to particular forms of disadvantage.