The ‘sandwich generation’ – who find themselves raising young children at the same time as supporting older parents – has grown out of a number of changes in the way we live. Due to better healthcare, people are living longer and more severely disabled children are living into adulthood. People are tending to have children later in life and it is more common that both parents work.
Carers UK estimate that there are around 2.4 million ‘sandwich carers’ across the UK, and this is likely to increase as the older population grows.
Struggling to cope
A YouGov poll of 1,008 sandwich carers, commissioned by Carers UK and Employers for Carers, found that four in 10 (42%) were struggling to cope as their careers, family finances and relationships suffer.
Almost two thirds (63%) said that caring had had a negative impact on their relationship with their spouse or partner, and 69% said they had seen their friendships affected.
Over half of parents worried about the effect on their children of having to juggle childcare with caring for an older parent or disabled relative, and four in 10 feared they were letting down their ageing parents or disabled loved ones.
With 34% of respondents having given up work in order to care, some of those who remained in work had reduced their hours (13%) or taken a less qualified job (7%). One in five respondents (22%) continued working as they did before but said their job had been negatively affected by caring as a result of tiredness, lateness and absence.
Help
The research published by Carers UK identifies an urgent need to improve affordability, quality and access to childcare, eldercare and care and support for disabled people, as well as lower-level domestic support.
They make a number of recommendations for improving the lives of sandwich carers by:
- reforming care services to address long-term underfunding of care and support services, ensure quality and affordability of services from childcare to eldercare, and shift to commissioning which reflects families’ diverse needs not just crisis avoidance
- stimulating a new generation of care and support services as part of national strategies for economic growth
- changing workplaces by spreading good practice amongst employers – raising awareness of the business benefits of family-friendly workplaces which reflect both childcare and other caring responsibilities.
Less to give
The sandwich generation was also a topic of conversation at November’s Help the Hospices conference in Manchester, where Joe Saxton, driver of ideas at nfpSynergy, used the phrase to discuss the challenges hospices (and charities generally) face in fundraising now and into the future.
Joe said charities must be more innovative with their income generation plans as people currently have less to give as they are “sandwiched between children and elderly parents competing for money”.
There were even delegates in attendance who said they found themselves as part of the sandwich generation, agreeing with the description and financial predicament.
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