This chapter explores the interaction between paid employment and informal caregiving in Britain. The work–life balance, or how to reconcile caring responsibilities with paid work, has become an urgent one for policy makers concerned to maximise employment rates in order to maintain economic competitiveness. Moreover, as Jane Lewis points out in Chapter Two, along with childcare, the question of who will provide informal care has become increasingly important with the decline of the married male breadwinner family model and the increasing policy emphasis on paid employment as a route out of poverty and social exclusion. With a rising proportion of women participating in the labour market and an ageing population, there is also concern, as Glendinning points out in Chapter Ten, about who will provide the care that many chronically sick or disabled people need in order to live in their own homes. Thus, helping informal carers to participate in the labour market is an increasingly important issue for social policy and practice.

The structure of this chapter is as follows. The first section explores the risk of informal caring in Britain today, its implications for participation in paid employment, and its consequences for earnings and incomes more generally. The second section looks at what help is potentially available to carers, both in terms of cash and practical support. The third section draws on an empirical study of carers’ aspirations and decisions about work, in order to compare policy with practice. The final section presents conclusions about carers and employment within the welfare state in Britain today.

The risk of informal caring

It is important to note that informal care is not just about ‘elder care’, that is, looking after frail or disabled older relatives. It also encompasses care provided to chronically sick and disabled children, spouses and other adults of working age. Indeed, the General Household Survey (GHS) conducted in 2000 found that, among people providing 20 or more hours of care per week in Britain, 18% of care recipients were children of the carer and 45% were their spouses (Maher and Green, 2002). Thus although many carers are looking after older relatives, friends and neighbours, many are caring for chronically sick or disabled children and partners.