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Dependency and Interdependency: the Incomes of Informal Carers and the Impact of Social Security*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2009

Caroline Glendinning
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Abstract

Consideration of the income and social security needs of informal carers has remained conspicuously absent from discussions about ‘community care’. Similarly, carers have been more or less invisible in the development of social security policies. This paper reports on a study of the financial circumstances of a sample of working age carers, who were living with and providing substantial amounts of help and support to a disabled person in the same household. The study highlights first, the substantial work-related costs incurred by carers with full time employment; and second the financial dependency of carers without full time earnings, on their spouse, sibling or on the person being cared for. The implications of these findings are discussed in the light of recent developments in social security policies.

Type
Articles
Information
Journal of Social Policy , Volume 19 , Issue 4 , October 1990 , pp. 469 - 497
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1990

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