Income

Poverty among workers is a perennial problem. Recently there has been much interest in the idea of living wages. As mechanisms to increase wages above the ‘poverty line’, living wages present an alternative to New Labour’s ‘making work pay’ strategy; a combination of minimum wage regulation and means-tested, in-work relief.

Background Understanding how financial well-being changes through the life course of caregiving parents of children with developmental disabilities is critically important. Methods We analyse SIPP (U.S. Census Bureau) data to describe income poverty, asset poverty, income, net worth, and liquid assets of US parents ( N = 753) of children with developmental disabilities. Results Income and asset poverty was greatest for the youngest and oldest parents.

Informal carers represent a substantial proportion of the population in many countries and health is an important factor in their capacity to continue care-giving. This study investigated the impact of care-giving on the mental and physical health of informal carers, taking account of contextual factors, including family and work. We examined health changes from before care-giving commenced to 2 and 4 years after, using longitudinal data from the Household Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia survey. The sample comprised 424 carers and 424 propensity score-matched non-carers.

Examines whether carers could be successfully brought to the scope of tax credit schemes. The article explains how tax credits work, and looks at the advantages and disadvantages of providing tax credits for carers.

The range of government initiatives which involve carers is extremely broad, with the National Carers Strategy alone containing over 70 pledges. The Strategy takes a holistic approach, referring to almost every aspect of a carer's life from transport to work, from care to housing and from pensions to health. The breadth of issues covered in the Strategy means that it can make only passing reference to significant policy initiatives. This article explores these care, work and cash initiatives to examine in more depth whether this apparent coherence stand up to closer scrutiny.

Background Nearly 50 million Americans provide informal care to an older relative or friend. Many are members of the "sandwich generation", providing care for elderly parents and children simultaneously. Although evidence suggests that the negative health consequences of caregiving are more severe for sandwiched caregivers, little is known about how these associations vary by sociodemographic factors.

The Health & Social Care (H&SC) Task Force, the membership of which is set out in annex B, was one of four such task forces established to develop proposals for measures to be included in the new Carers’ Strategy . This report comprises proposals developed by the group which were put to the Interdepartmental Group chaired by David Behan, Director-General Social Care, Local Government and Care Partnerships, Department of Health, which oversaw the development of the strategy as a whole.

The impact of caring on the income and labour market participation of carers can be substantial. In this article, the authors describe the labour force status of carers who receive an Australian Government payment directed to carers, with a particular focus on the degree to which non-employed carers want to be in paid employment.

Aim: To investigate the gains experienced by family caregivers of persons with dementia. Methods: Twelve respondents were recruited using purposive sampling from three institutions around Singapore. A qualitative design, guided by the grounded theory approach, was adopted and involved semi-structured, in-depth, face-to-face interviews. The interviews were recorded, transcribed and analyzed using open, axial and selective coding. Results: All caregivers interviewed reported having gained from caregiving.