Caring for employees with dementia is costing businesses in England £1.6 billion per year, according to the economics think tank the Centre for Economics and Business Research (CEBR).

CEBR estimates that around 50,000 people will quit their job to care for vulnerable people this year alone, while an additional 66,000 will need to make provisions for care within their existing working life.

The CEBR report, created for Public Health England and the Alzheimer's Society's Dementia Friends, also revealed that businesses were adjusting working practices to make themselves more dementia-friendly.

Some 87 per cent of businesses would allow employees to work flexibly in order to care for a loved one. Flexible working hours, extended leave, remote working and counselling were all options floated by surveyed businesses.

But, according to Jeremy Hughes, chief executive of Alzheimer's Society, employers should go further.

“The fact that thousands of workers in this country are juggling caring responsibilities without support and understanding from their employers is frightening," he said.

"We're all beginning to talk about dementia; however, society is not yet fully supportive of people with dementia, either in the workplace or in everyday life. I'd love to see everyone become Dementia Friends, and make life that little bit easier for people with dementia.”