A new study by the ESRC Centre for Society and Mental Health at King’s College London looks at the impact of the retirement policy changes that may have led to this significant change in informal caregiving. The female state pension age recently increased by up to six years, meaning that many women are now working for longer and therefore don’t have the time they would previously have to provide informal care to elderly relatives.
An increase in life expectancy in the UK has led to two main challenges within ageing societies. Firstly, there is an increased demand for long term care, supporting those who have functional limitations during day to day life. This care is often provided by unpaid family help. The second challenge faced is pension reform, and the increase in an ageing population causing a higher cost of pension systems. These challenges are met with governmental policy responses, including constrained access to public funded care services, and the rise of the statutory pension age, to increase adult employment rates. Based on data provided by Understanding Society, they found an average increase of 10 hours work per week reduces the provision of informal care by 2.1 hours a week.
The reduction in caregiving is found mainly among women with physically or mentally demanding jobs, as well as the ‘sandwich generation’ – people who have a parent alive, and at least one grandchild. The impact of care has been found to be dependent on the type of care received, e.g. within or outside the household, as well as the employment characteristics, such as a demanding job, and the presence of other family members that can also take on caregiving roles.
The study also found that the reduction of care received from family was not compensated by an increase in formal care, or by other sources of support. This may lead to reduced functioning and higher healthcare costs for older people and can cause direct implications to other families as they may increase their care provisions to compensate for the reduction in adult children’s care involvement.
EmploymentFamily and households
