Life after the carer’s allowance: what do we know about the postcaregiving transition in Ireland?

Sheridan, Celia. (2020). Life after the carer’s allowance: what do we know about the postcaregiving transition in Ireland? Dearcadh: Graduate Journal of Gender, Globalisation and Rights, 1. doi:https://doi.org/10.13025/ntxc-w861

Abstract

There is much discourse around carers but less so around the post-caregiving transition and how carers navigate the pathway from carer to former carer. This article stems from a wider research project, which explored the role of the Carer’s Allowance in Ireland and the economic independence of carers in receipt of the Allowance. However, the focus of this article is on the post-caregiving transition, which remains an underresearched area of caring, particularly the implications for recipients of the Carer’s Allowance. The article contextualises the Carer’s Allowance policy and discusses some of the findings from the qualitative research noted above. It identifies a number of gaps, which act to constrain carers’ ability to fully participate in the workforce, limiting them to part-time precarious employment, or to disengage entirely from the workforce. It also means that carers and former carers have differential access to state pensions due to interrupted employment during their life course. These limitations restrict former carers in their ability to reconstruct life after caring, and ultimately determines the outcomes of the postcaregiving transition.

Publisher

School of Political Science and Sociology, University of Galway

Rights

CC BY-NC-ND 3.0 IE

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Collections

School of Political Science & Sociology (Scholarly Articles)