Introduction

This chapter provides an overview of different models of financial support for informal carers (that is, the kin and close friends) of older people. These models reflect the institutional and cultural traditions of the broader societies and welfare states of which they are a part. Thus, the underlying logic, rationale and form of different models of payment for informal care are shaped by wider welfare state institutional and cultural traditions, and by beliefs about the relationships between families (particularly the role of women within them) and formal, collectively funded state provision.

The chapter first argues that the issue of paying informal carers needs to be understood from several different policy perspectives. It then outlines four models of providing financial support for informal care, illustrated with examples from specific countries. However, as noted above, the rationales underpinning these contrasting models tend to reflect the dominant welfare arrangements in different countries (Lundsgaard, 2005). It is therefore difficult to engage in discussions of whether a particular model is ‘better’ or ‘worse’ than another, because of their embeddedness in specific policy logics and underlying assumptions. Instead, the chapter evaluates the different models against a series of questions relating to sustainability; the implications for economic well-being and concepts of citizenship that derive from labour market participation; the balance between individual, family and social rights and responsibilities; and the quality of care. Some of these issues, particularly those relating to gender and social rights, provide specific examples of the issues raised in Chapters Two and Three; the question of gender equity is also discussed in more detail in Chapter Eleven. Finally, the chapter argues that, in order to address these wider policy issues, a number of additional measures to paying informal carers of older people are required.

Payments for informal care – at the intersection of multiple policy domains

Payment for informal carers of older people is a complex issue because it is located within a number of different policy domains, each of which can be approached from different analytical and disciplinary perspectives.

First, payment for informal care is at the heart of debates about the sustainable provision of long-term care for older people; in almost all western societies the majority of primary caregivers of older people living in the community are close relatives.