More than a million people are now part of the “sandwich generation” - stuck in the middle while financially supporting their elderly parents and adult children.
Middle-aged parents are forced to balance working full-time while spending an extra 19 hours every week caring for their older relatives, with a third paying towards their care. Meanwhile they are spending nearly £6,500 a year on children aged 22 and over - thousands of pounds more than the cost of raising a younger child.
An ageing population and the burden of children living at home longer has forced more than a million people into the so-called “sandwich generation”. The sandwich generation has pressure to keep earning in order to fund the care and lifestyles of loved ones. Thousands are taking on more hours and even starting second jobs as they struggle to afford the monumental costs.
Parents are handing out support in all areas, with more than half funding food, household bills and helping to pay off debts. Around a third pay for medical care, just under a quarter help fund home renovations for loved ones and 11 per cent are helping to pay tuition fees. Almost half of the sandwich generation say the financial pressure is “challenging”, while a quarter have had to take out a loan to cope.
Slightly less than half of people in the sandwich generation have to balance working full-time with an average of 19 hours each week caring for a parent. Meanwhile parents can spend up to 39 hours looking after a younger relative.
The changing nature of modern families is placing real financial pressure on those who are having to provide support to more than one generation. This help often lasts for many years longer than people may have originally thought. Nobody wants to think about the possibility of getting ill or being made unemployed however the reality is that some of us will be off work for a period of time at some point in our career.
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