The number of older people acting as informal carers has increased by 16 per cent over a five-year period, according to Age UK, Britain’s largest charity supporting older people. Its research found that 2.3 million people aged 65 and older were providing care for another person in 2015-16, usually their husband or wife, although not always. This compared with a figure of 1.8 million five years earlier. Of these, 400,000 people were from the oldest demographic of aged 80 and over. The charity estimated that cumulatively this oldest group provided 12.7 million…

Source: The Times December 14, 2017 12:11 UTC