Growing pressure on over-50s to juggle work with family care

A research study for the Joseph Rowntree Foundation highlights the declining number of young people in the population and other trends that are persuading employers to retain older staff, especially women, in the workforce. Yet this same age group faces growing demands on their time to care for other family members.

Researchers at the Institute of Education’s Thomas Coram Research Unit combined an analysis of national labour force trends with a survey of more than a thousand employees aged over 50 and recently retired staff from local authorities in two contrasting areas. There were also a number of in-depth interviews. They found that:

• People between 50 and retirement are a ‘pivot’ generation, combining work and care roles. Two-thirds are in paid employment, while six out of ten 50-year-olds have living parents and a third have grandchildren.
• Nearly half the local authority staff surveyed had some caring responsibility. One in three looked after an elderly relative or friend, one in six provided care for a grandchild and one in ten did both.
• Almost as many men as women said they provided care, but women’s caregiving was more intensive. More than a third of those providing care were doing so for fewer than five hours a week. However, a quarter of women caregivers and an eighth of men were providing 20 or more hours of informal care a week.
• Few of the employees interviewed wanted to give up their jobs in order to take on caring responsibilities. Although some grandparents were prepared to give up work or reduce their hours to look after their grandchildren, there was a general reluctance to offer full-time care.
• Although staff over 50 often spoke of the satisfaction they derived from their caring responsibilities, almost half said it had made their life more stressful and a third said it left them with less time for their family and themselves.
• In some cases, the health of carers had suffered as a result of trying to absorb the impact of a demanding caring role, without it affecting their work life.
• Flexible working hours came top of the list of the workplace policies that employees thought would help them to balance working and caring responsibilities. There was strong support for the opportunity to work reduced hours.

Ann Mooney, co-author of the report, said: “A number of the people we interviewed clearly felt their opportunities for training and promotion has been restricted by their responsibilities as carers. Employees over 50 were also well aware that giving up working time to provide informal care would affect their pension entitlements, as well as costing them short-term income. Yet the main price of care was perceived in terms of lost personal time and poor health rather than money.”

June Statham, co-author of the report, added: “Staff over 50 can increasingly expect to find themselves pressurised between employers who want them to stay on, working longer hours, and growing pressure to care informally for grandchildren, their own elderly parents, or both. Without more resources to support carers, both in and out of work, their contribution may not be sustainable.”