Dementia care crisis ‘costing businesses £3.2bn’ as carers forced to quit jobs

• Chris Easom
• September 28, 2019
• Dementia, StaffAid

A crisis in dementia care has cost businesses in England £3.2bn in the last year, according to a charity. Research by the Alzheimer’s Society looked into people who have had to quit jobs, reduce hours, or change working patterns to care for their loved ones.The charity said the figure was likely to double over the next 20 years to £6.3bn and are now calling on the government to deliver on their promise to end the dementia care crisis. “Up and down the country, families are desperately trying and often failing to get the good quality dementia care their loved ones need,” said Alzheimer’s Society chief executive Jeremy Hughes. “Instead, over 100,000 people have had no choice but to leave their jobs and try to care for their loved ones themselves. The knock-on cost to businesses is only going to get bigger, with more and more people set to develop dementia and no solution put in place to sort out social care. It’s devastating for people with dementia, devastating for their families and carers, a drain on the NHS and now we see how badly it’s affecting our economy.”