The Express published an article claiming that “as many as 4.7 million” people who have caring responsibilities could end up without a job due to “unsupportive” employers.

In their headline, they claimed “carers fear the sack if they put loved ones first.” But the poll this is based on does not mention sacking at all. The data comes from a survey of 2,004 UK adults, 280 of whom said they were carers.

178 carers, or around 8.9% of respondents to the survey said “yes” to the question: “do you think you would ever have no option but to give up your existing job to help care for a dependent or relative due to lack of support and flexibility from your employer?”

This percentage was then applied to the total UK adult population to give the 4.7 million figure. This makes assumptions about the entire UK population based on a small sample size of 280, and the smaller the sample of people who respond to a question the larger the margin of error is likely to be.

The question the Express headline is based on is phrased as a hypothetical. And the headline could suggest people are imminently in danger of losing jobs, rather than it being an unmeasured possibility sometime in the future.

We asked the Express to correct the article, and it has changed the headline and article to remove references to people facing "the sack" and the 4.7 million figure.