What is the financial cost of care?

1. 16 April 2007
   
   Business and non-government groups in Australia have been investigating the cost of caregiving and how it affects workforce participation.
   
   The Taskforce on Care Costs (TOCC) has just finished a “Who Cares” campaign to alert the Australian government to the high cost of caring for children, the elderly and people with a disability.
2. 
   The cost of care has “spiralled out of control” and carers are being forced out of the workforce, according to TOCC research. 
   
   Other TOCC research findings.

 

• Half of the ten million Australians with caring responsibilities are not in the workforce.
• One fifth of them care for an elderly or disabled person, the rest care for a child or children.
• One in four carers leaves the workforce because of the cost of care, and one in four has reduced their hours for the same reason.
• 35 percent of working carers would work more hours if the cost of caring were more affordable.
• 60 percent of unemployed carers would re-enter the workforce if caring were more affordable.
• 52 percent of part-time employee carers would increase their hours of work if caring were more affordable.

The Taskforce has released three reports on the cost of care.

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