Informal carers

Informal carers or ‘carers’, are people who provide care to those who need it within the context of an existing relationship, such as a family member, a friend or a neighbour (Carer Recognition Act 2010). The demands of the role often go beyond what would normally be expected of these relationships. People who need care may also receive formal services from government and other organisations. Informal carers comprise those who are ‘primary carers’ meaning they are responsible for the majority of informal care to a person and ‘secondary carers’ who provide informal care to someone but are not their primary carer.

Informal carers are unpaid. Some informal carers may receive a basic income support payment and/or other support services in the same way as other pensions.

Informal carers and informal volunteers may be involved in similar forms of unpaid support provision, however, while some informal carers care for people living in the same household, informal volunteers can provide unpaid support to people who are not family and do not live in the same household. For information on people who volunteer their time to help others, see Volunteers.

The type and level of informal care can vary considerably. This may relate to people with disability, chronic illness, mental health, an end-of-life health condition or age-related frailty. An informal carer might carry out many tasks that paid services would otherwise provide, for example, help someone with showering, eating or shopping, provide in-home supervision, provide transport for moving about in the community, or carry out medical or therapeutic care. However, informal carers also frequently undertake navigation and engagement of healthcare, aged care, disability care, social security and other systems on behalf of those for whom they care. They may also provide emotional and mental health support.

How many people are informal carers?

According to the latest Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) Survey of Disability, Ageing and Carers (SDAC) in 2022, there were an estimated 3 million people (12% of the population) who provided informal care in Australia (ABS 2024a). The average age of informal carers was 50 years old and more than one-third (34%, an estimated 1.05 million people) of all carers were aged 35–54 (ABS 2024a). More than 1 in 3 (38%, an estimated 1.2 million people) in 2022 were primary carers, a slight increase from 33% in 2018 (ABS 2024a). Primary carers were mainly female (68%, compared with 32% for males). This was consistent across all age groups with the highest proportion of women providing primary care aged 35–44 (80%) and 45–54 (77%) (Figure 1). Conversely, the majority of ‘secondary carers’ were males (54% compared with 46% for females).

Income support payments

People who provide informal care are not paid for the care they provide, although some receive income support payments from the Australian Government. This is a smaller subgroup of all informal carers, that is, people whose caring duties are significant enough to both limit their ability to engage in paid work and/or meet eligibility requirements for the Carer Payment and/or the Carer Allowance.

The Australian Government means-tested Carer Payment is the primary income support payment for people providing constant care for someone who has considerable needs due to disability, older age or ill health. As at June 2025, 325,845 people were receiving a Carer Payment (DSS 2024a). For more information on long-term trends and demographic characteristics of carer payment recipients, see Income support payments for the working age population and Income support for older Australians.

People may also, or instead, receive the Carer Allowance, which is a smaller supplementary payment for carers who provide daily care and attention at home for a person with disability, with a severe medical condition or who are frail. The Carer Allowance may be paid in addition to basic income support payments. As at December 2024, around 667,630 people were receiving this allowance with an additional 7,715 people receiving the Carer Allowance (Child Health Care Card only) (DSS 2024a).

Other support services

In addition to income support payments, services are available to support carers in other ways. Examples include, peer support, counselling, respite, carer skills courses, coaching and some additional financial support.

The National Carer Strategy 2024–2034 provides a national framework for co-designing, developing and delivering a suite of actions to support Australia’s unpaid carers (DSS 2024b). The Strategy was designed and created with carers. It aims to promote greater recognition of the roles and value of carers within the community, across service systems for those they care for, to guide improved support for carers now and into the future. (DSS 2024b).

The Australian Government funds a range of supports, programs and services. For more information such as the Carer Gateway, Young Carer Bursary Program, Young Carer Network, and the Carer Inclusive Workplace Initiative, see Department of Social Services Supporting Carers.

Respite care services are offered under different programs. For example:

• The National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) includes respite care, such as short-term accommodation and assistance, where it is considered a reasonable and necessary support.
• The Commonwealth Home Support Programme (CHSP) offers, among other things, centre-based, cottage and flexible respite services. In 2022–23, 13% of people using CHSP had an informal carer (AIHW 2024b). In 2023–24, 41,318 clients received CHSP respite services (Department of Health and Aged Care 2024).
• In residential aged care, respite stays of (generally) up to 63 days in a financial year are available. In 2023–24, there were 98,067 admissions to respite residential aged care (noting there is a lack of robust data to identify whether someone has an informal carer when admitted to respite residential aged care) (AIHW 2024a).

Carers’ wellbeing and experience

Understanding the unique experiences, wellbeing and changing needs of carers is important to better support carers into the future. This information is currently sourced from a range of surveys.

The 2024 Carer Wellbeing Survey found that:

• carers were less likely to report having good/excellent health (17%) compared with other Australians (46%)
• carers were more likely to report high levels of loneliness (40%) compared with other Australian adults (14%)
• experiences with respite care were positive overall – 58% of carers reported that respite care was consistently good
• carers who were employed were more likely to report healthy levels of wellbeing (45%) compared with carers who were unemployed (30%) (Carers Australia 2024).

For the full report and findings from previous years, see Carer Wellbeing Survey.

The National Carer Survey has been conducted since 2020 by Carers NSW and the State and Territory Carer Organisations, with funding from the NSW Department for Communities and Justice (Carers NSW, 2025). The National Carer Survey is conducted every two years with the aim of expanding the evidence base regarding carers’ experiences and support needs. The 2024 National Carer Survey collated responses from 10,096 carers across Australia. The majority of participants were female with an average age of 58 years, and represented a range of locations and cultural backgrounds. Overall, 57% of participants reported being employed or looking for paid work while providing care, and the majority were caring for one person with no assistance from other family members or friends. The most common conditions of people being cared for were physical disabilities, followed by mental health conditions, autism and chronic health conditions. The majority of respondents reported providing 40 or more hours per week of care and had been in their caring role for over 10 years (Carers NSW, 2025).

Regarding demographic diversity, 4% of respondents identified as First Nations and 18% of respondents identified as being of a culturally or linguistically diverse (CALD) background (Carers NSW, 2025). Of those who identified as being of a CALD background, 10% spoke a language other than English at home, the most common being Italian, Greek, Arabic and Auslan. Overall, 5.5% of respondents identified as LGBTQ+.

In regard to overall life satisfaction, carers reported lower levels of personal wellbeing, quality of life and mental health compared to Australian population. Further, the number of carers reporting high to very high levels of psychological distress was 54%, increasing from 48% in 2020. Levels of financial stress have also increased over time, with 59% of respondents reporting experiencing financial stress in 2024 compared to 51% in 2020 (Carers NSW, 2025).

For more information, see the National Carer Survey.

The National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) Outcomes Framework collects information on how participants, their families and carers are progressing in different areas of their lives based on information provided by them in interviews conducted using two questionnaires. Resulting information is published annually as part of the National Disability Insurance Agency’s annual outcomes reporting program. Recent reporting of longitudinal data up to 30 June 2024 highlight, for example, that an increasing proportion of families/carers report that services used are meeting their needs and that services used are listening to them (NDIS 2024). For the full report and findings from previous years, see NDIS 2024.

The Australia’s Disability Strategy 2021–2031 Outcome Framework reported in 2022 that 45% of carers for people with disability across the whole population (not just NDIS) were satisfied with the range of services available to assist in their caring role. This was a decrease of 5 percentage points compared with 50% in 2018 (AIHW 2025).

For more information, see Australia’s Disability Strategy 2021–2031 Outcomes Framework: 3rd annual report, Informal and carer supports.

Where do I go for more information?

For more information on informal carers, see:

• ABS Survey of Disability, Ageing and Carers
• Carers Australia
• Department of Social Services Supporting carers.