SAVI NGS RAIDERS

‘Sandwich generation’ grows as pandemic piles on the pressure

Millions of people who care for both children and elderly parents are being forced to stop work, take on debt or raid their pensions as Covid-19 piles pressure on the so-called “sandwich generation”.

The number of people in this group has ballooned since the pandemic began as families are forced to help older relatives who have been told to self-isolate.

Before the outbreak there were around 2.4 million people caring for an elderly relative and a dependent child, according to Carers UK, a charity. Since then, 4.5 million more people have taken on care responsibilities, its research showed – a large number of whom will have young families.

The charity’s Emily Holzhausen said: “In a matter of months, millions of people – many in their 40s and 50s and holding down a job – have started to care unpaid for family members and friends during lockdown.”

She said returning to work in August, with many care and support services still closed, would be a big challenge.

Having to juggle schooling children at home and getting food deliveries to parents has meant many of those in the sandwich generation have already had to cut their working hours or quit entirely.

Nearly half of people in this group have reduced their hours as a result of Covid-19, according to research for Telegraph Money by Compare the Market, a comparison service.

The cost of home schooling materials and fuel to drive to parents quickly adds up, especially when combined with a drop in earnings.

People in the sandwich generation were more likely than the general population to have seen the cost of their food shopping and fuel increase since the start of the pandemic, Compare the Market’s research showed. They were also more likely to have had to dip into their savings, take on additional debt or withdraw money from their pension.

Almost a third of those who care for both children and parents said they had raided their savings to get by, compared with just one in five without these responsibilities.

Around 12pc had taken money from their pension, more than double the percentage of the general population who had done so.

As reported previously by this newspaper, older people are becoming increasingly reluctant to enter care homes because the high coronavirus death toll has caused a crisis of confidence.

If fewer people are willing to rely on homes in the future, the burden of care will increasingly fall on younger relatives.

Even before the epidemic, Aviva, the insurer, had predicted that 2.6 million workers would be forced to stop work early in order to care for an adult relative.

The firm’s Alistair McQueen said: “Lockdown could certainly increase this number. A conservative assumption would be that it would rise to at least three million.”

This would disproportionately affect women, who make up 58pc of unpaid carers, according to Carers UK. Mothers are also spending more time looking after children while schools and nurseries remain closed and less time in paid work as a result.

Research by the Institute for Fiscal Studies, a think tank, found that mothers were spending around 10 hours a day looking after children in lockdown – two hours more than fathers.