Posts tagged Family finances

Poorer women who give up work to look after grandchildren are losing pay, report finds

Grandparents in some of the UK’s most vulnerable families are risking hardship by taking time out of work to provide free childcare, a report claimed today.

Research commissioned by the Equality and Human Rights Commission and the charity Grandparents Plus found that working-class grandmothers of working age on low incomes were more likely to have given up work or reduced their hours to care for grandchildren than those in wealthier families.

Working-class women were more likely to be young grandmothers, defined as under 50-years-old, than middle-class women, while their younger relatives were less likely to be able to afford formal childcare arrangements.

Giving up their own jobs to plug the childcare gap had a big impact on grandmothers’ income – nearly two-thirds of grandmothers who had given up work or reduced their hours to care for their grandchildren were managing on a very low household income.

The report showed that while across demographic groups, one in three families rely on grandparents to provide some kind of childcare on a weekly basis, among single-parent families that figure rises to between half and two-thirds. Children of these families are nearly twice as likely to experience economic hardship than the wider population.

It said more than half of families with a disabled child live in poverty or are in danger of sinking into it, and that grandparents in these families play a considerable role in providing emotional, practical and financial support, particularly during times of crisis.

It also found that ethnic minority households are most likely to have a grandparent, child and grandchild all living under the same roof, which it said often led to the expectation that grandparents would take on high levels of childcare.

The report, Protect, Support, Provide, was based on new data from the British Social Attitudes survey, together with a review of literature on the role of grandparents role in society.

The researchers said historically the contribution grandparents made to their grandchildren’s lives had been “underestimated and under-recorded”, but it was known that it varied widely from occasional childcare support through to substantial periods of regular childcare to enable parents to return to work.

They added: “The cosy (stereotypical) image of the benevolent, middle-class grandparent with the resources and time to ’spoil’ their grandchildren is familiar for some but it does not reflect the reality for many.”

The groups behind the report said the government’s aims of increasing the numbers of lone parents in work and increasing the employment rate of older people as they approach retirement were working in conflict with each other.

Kay Carberry, commissioner at the Equality and Human Rights Commission, said: “The contribution of grandparents cannot be ignored. Without the free childcare they give, many parents would not be able to work. This is particularly important in low income families that may find it difficult to pay for childcare.”

Sam Smethers, chief executive of Grandparents Plus, said: “Until very recently we’ve seen a failure to consider the importance of grandparents in family life. This has made them invisible to government, so it’s not surprising that targets on child poverty and older people’s poverty are working against each other.

“It’s time the government recognised that grandparents provide the last line of defence between millions of children and that poverty line. They need recognition and better emotional, financial and practical support.”

To make life easier for grandparents, the groups are calling on the government to extend the right to request flexible working to all employees and to abolish the default retirement age.

They also want to work with Jobcentre Plus advisers to accommodate the needs of the wider family and ensure the forthcoming Child Poverty Commission considers the role of grandparents in their work.