September 2025 marks PensionBee’s Carer’s Month - a dedicated time to honour the countless unpaid carers across the UK. These are the unsung heroes whose invisible labour supports families and society. Yet all too often, this caregiving leaves their own financial futures at risk.
This initiative grows organically from our Invisible Workers campaign, launched earlier this year. This campaign highlights the relentless ‘juggle-struggle’ many face between paid work, unpaid care, financial and life admin. But it was fuelled more by instinct and necessity than by applause or recognition. Carers are the glue holding families - and our economy - together. Yet their work remains undervalued and often absent from financial support systems. This has a direct impact on their retirement, which can end up completely ignored.
Carer’s Month is about shining the spotlight on those experiences. Our research shows that just 25% of unpaid carers currently save into a pension. This leaves the majority at serious risk of reaching retirement with little or no private pension savings. Our research found many carers:
- don’t know they can contribute;
- believe they earn too little; or
- feel excluded by a pension system designed around the traditional full-time career.
This is the second time we’re celebrating Carer’s Month as it’s a topic very important to us. This month is an opportunity for us to focus on how those challenges play out in real life. It’s a chance to hear stories from those who’ve tried to balance caring duties with paid work and pension planning. Whether that’s mothers, fathers, sons, daughters or grandparents. Their deeply personal experiences remind us that financial exclusion isn’t an abstract concept. It’s very much lived daily by so many.
Last year we organised a talk with Carers Trust where we heard from people in the community about their lived-experience of being carers. This year we’re taking a different approach. We’re going to hear some new perspectives, including an experience from inside the care system. Too often, the transition from being a carer back into paid work is overlooked. But it can shape a person’s outlook on financial independence for years to come.
Another theme we’re delving into is the experience of ‘sandwich carers’. This is where individuals, more often women, are caring for dependent children and their own elderly or disabled relatives. This dual responsibility can lead to stress, financial strain and mental health challenges. We’re giving voice to lived experiences under the banner “Where in the sandwich are you?”. With this, we hope to reflect the complex reality of this situation, to benefit from their advice and share in their lessons learned.
We’re also offering practical guidance on small steps carers can take to protect their futures. Whether it’s understanding top-up options or learning how to keep contributing to a pension while out of paid work. We want carers to feel supported and informed so they can avoid the pitfalls and find the confidence to begin saving again after a break. And, crucially, we’ll continue speaking up about the systemic changes needed so that pensions work for everyone, not just those with uninterrupted careers and work outside the home.
Yet the reality is that when carers take extended time out of work, pension contributions often fall away. Unpaid carers don’t get the benefits of employer matching or the safety net of Auto-Enrolment. While so much energy is being invested in supporting others, it’s easy to see how saving for the future can easily slip off the priority list. Especially without sufficient access and education to straightforward personal pension options. In this scenario it’s often the carer’s own long-term financial security that suffers.
We’re determined to change that narrative. Carers deserve:
- flexible pension contribution options;
- more awareness about their rights and options; and
- a system that recognises caring as valuable work.
Without reform, the Carer’s Pension Gap will continue to grow. One year out of paid work to care can reduce a pension pot by around £5,000. After six years, that gap can balloon to around £30,000, representing 13% less in pension savings at retirement.
Carer’s Month is about acknowledging the challenge of being a carer while also celebrating their resilience. By opening up conversations, sharing knowledge, and championing change, we can help carers look forward to a future with financial independence and dignity in retirement.
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