It’s not easy for family caregivers these days. To be able to fund care fully, you will need to part with 20% of your income. The situation is dire because caregivers are putting their retirement funds at risk. Not to mention their current financial situation. In more drastic cases, people with low incomes are spending close to 44% of their income caring for a loved one.
The ‘Cost’ of Family Caregiving
According to a survey based on a 1,864 caregivers, expenditure on out-of-pocket costs is $6,954. The report had included costs for caregivers who have patients with dementia. Their spending was even more massive, amounting up to $10,697. But, the expenses were the biggest in caregivers who maintained a long-distance care. On average they spend $11.923. This is mostly because they also have outside services to pay for.
Source: www.bostonglobe.com
The manner in which caregivers get the funds to maintain quality care for their loved ones is not the same for all. But, the 1,864 people in this survey said that they create the extra cash by taking money from their savings; keeping their spending in check; by saving less for their own retirement, and by taking loans. More than half of the people from this group have stated: having to take unpaid time off from their work is also straining their bank account.
Ways to Help
There are ways that family caregivers could be helped. Tax credit and caregiver relief would be excellent. Also, the new family caregivers now face tasks they didn’t know before. So, free medical training would be good for them in order to better take care of their elderly or ill. In addition to all of this, security credits would come in handy, for all of the lost benefits that came in when a caregiver had to leave the workplace.
Unfortunately for all of those who are in a situation that they must leave their job, or cut hours to be a caregiver, this issue wasn’t mentioned in the recently ended presidential campaign. But, we hope that in the future, this matter will be addressed more by people in power.
Featured Image Source: www.aarp.org
