Government today (Friday 17.12.2021) has taken steps to ensure that unpaid carers can use a specific letter to identify themselves to gain priority for the booster jabs for COVID-19 along with paid care workers, if there are long queues.  

How carers can use the letter:

Carers should print this out and take this with them, or save it onto a device that they have with them.

How this came about:

Since the plans for COVID-19 boosters have been speeded up, Carers UK became worried about unpaid carers who cannot leave the person they care for alone for very long, or cannot stand in queues with the person they care for because they may become upset, agitated or exhausted. We raised this urgently with the Government in England and the vaccination leads about how to ensure that unpaid carers get quick access to the COVID-19 booster jab. The Government has listened and carers can now use a letter to prove that they are an unpaid carer to get priority access in queues.