Grandparents who are filling the ‘care gap’ in some of Britain’s most vulnerable families are risking hardship themselves, a new report from Grandparents Plus and the Equality and Human Rights Commission reveals.

The report Protect, Support, Provide highlights that grandparents in families most at risk of poverty are under increasing pressure to take on a caring role. It shows that working age, working class grandmothers on low incomes are most likely to be providing child care and to have given up work or reduced their hours to care for grandchildren. This has an impact on household income and may have an effect on a grandparent’s pension rights as well as their health.

The report warns that two of the Government’s aims are working in conflict with each other: increasing the numbers of lone parents in work and increasing the employment rate of older people as they approach retirement as grandparents are providing free childcare instead of being at work themselves.  This in turn could be undermining Government attempts both to reduce child poverty and older people’s poverty.

The wide range of research into the role of grandparents in low-income families in Britain that was gathered for the report shows that: 

• One in three families relies on grandparental childcare each week, rising to one in two for single parent families.  
• One in three carers who are family or friends give up paid work when they take on the care of a child, and a further three in ten (30 per cent) reduce their paid working hours.  
• Three out of four carers who are family or friends experience financial hardship when they take on the care of a child (approximately 200,000 families in Britain).  More than one in three of these carers (35 per cent) are single parent grandparents.  
• More than half of families with a disabled child live in or near the margins of poverty. Grandparents in these families play a considerable role in providing emotional, practical and financial support, particularly in times of crisis.  
• Ethnic minority households are more likely to include a grandparent, parent and child living in under the same roof. This often leads to the expectation that grandparents will take on high levels of childcare.

Kay Carberry, Commissioner at the Equality and Human Rights Commission, commented: “The contribution of grandparents cannot be ignored. Without the free child care 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 child care. 

“We’re making a number of recommendations to Government, based on the findings of this report. These include extending the right to request flexible working to all employees so that it is easier for grandparents to balance their work and care commitments, abolishing the default retirement age and looking in more detail at the economic contribution of grandparents. 

“We 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.”