Why Scotland's 400,000 unpaid carers of working age deserve a better deal
The issue of unpaid carers is being marginalised despite its importance to Scotland’s economy, writes Dr Louise Lawson
Healthy life expectancy – how long we can expect to live in good health – has fallen in Scotland by around two years to just over 59 for both men and women. Most of us will provide or require care in our lifetimes and this is a stark reminder that many of us will need care earlier and for longer than we might expect.
Yet as the 2026 Scottish Parliament election approaches, the question remains: who will care for us – and why do so few political parties seem willing to confront the reality of unpaid care?
Caring is as essential to Scotland’s economy as transport, housing or digital connectivity, requiring collective investment and political leadership. Imagine a different kind of politics: one that puts care at the centre rather than the margins. A manifesto that recognises that demographic changes and health and care needs are reshaping Scotland, that care is not a private family matter but core infrastructure that keeps society functioning.
Social expectations
In this vision, childcare and social care would be treated as economic assets. Carers would be visible, valued, and supported, not relied upon to absorb the failures of an overstretched system.
Scotland has around 400,000 unpaid carers of working age. Unpaid care is one of the biggest and least recognised drivers of economic inactivity, with women continuing to shoulder most of this vital but undervalued work. This gender imbalance is not incidental. It is tied to societal expectations and persistent inequalities.
In my research on women in Glasgow, caring was a factor that pushed them into multiple and low-paid jobs, earning two-thirds less per hour and 40 per cent less per week than the average working woman.
A genuine choice
In a more ambitious political landscape, caring would not be treated as a barrier to decent work but as a shared social responsibility. Employment would adapt around caring, backed by real flexibility, income protection, and a social security system that makes caring a genuine choice rather than an inevitability.
Across the 50 ‘Next Steps’ in the SNP manifesto, unpaid care barely features, reduced to a brief mention of breaks and health checks. Scottish Labour offers similarly limited attention, acknowledging respite and wellbeing, but proposing no fundamental changes.
The Scottish Conservatives and Reform UK go further still in sidelining care, offering tweaks to benefits but no substantive proposals for Scotland’s social care system or unpaid carers.
READ MORE: Charity warns end of life patients 'being written off' amid call for legal right to palliative care
Real work
The Scottish Liberal Democrats and Scottish Greens offer the boldest plans for unpaid carers, yet they are the least likely to shape the next government. The Liberal Democrats propose increasing financial support for unpaid carers, expanding rights to respite, calling for paid carers’ leave across the UK and changes to the Equality Act.
The Scottish Greens treat unpaid care as real work with proposals to improve financial security for unpaid carers, strengthen their rights and raise social care workers’ pay.
Until unpaid care is recognised as a structural part of Scotland’s economy, unpaid carers – especially women – will keep absorbing the costs of a system that relies on them but also marginalises them.
Dr Louise Lawson is a lecturer in urban studies and social policy in the School of Social and Political Sciences at the University of Glasgow
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