Family aged care ‘workers’ need help

Australians caring for elderly family and friends should be offered government-legislated leave similar to maternity leave.

Tania Teague, pictured with with her mother, Anita Teague, and pet dog Walter. Anita suffers from a degenerative condition and can no longer live independently. Picture: Britta Campion/The Australian

Australians who look after family and friends in the aged-care ­system should be offered government-legislated leave similar to maternity leave, say carers as they urged employers to be more receptive to often difficult circumstances.

With an estimated 2.86 million informal carers across the country who are often forced to leave full-time work to care for loved ones, Sydney-based organisation Your Side is calling for a rethink of the way private and public sectors remunerate carers.

Your Side chief executive Danielle Ballantine, whose not-for-profit business provides home-care services and aims to take some burden off carers, said there should be organisational policies for carers in the same way there was a maternity leave policy for mothers.

“Given our population is ageing, that’s going to be just as important as parental leave,” Ms Ballantine said.

“That’s around flexible work environments, job-sharing, having policies that give individuals the confidence to say ‘I need to take unpaid leave for a period of time but I’m assured my job will be there when I come back’.

“Different start times, finish times. Ideally, the government would legislate a policy, given the importance of the issue.”

Tania Teague, 40, cares part-time for her 71-year-old mother Anita, who has a genetic degenerative condition.

Ms Teague was a full-time carer for her mother for a year when her father was ill and said navigating the aged-care system was complicated.

“Once Dad got better, I was looking for work. Working flexibly or part-time, trying to re-enter the workforce was really difficult,” she said.

“People understand mat­ernity leave, and they try to cater for that. A parent who needs support is different. Somebody asked me during a job interview how long I expected to be a carer — I was quite taken aback by that.

“My superannuation is already behind because I’m looking after my parents. I’m 40 and I need to be able to work. Even though there’s some support from the government, it doesn’t look after me and my future.”

The aged-care royal commission’s interim report said there was “terrible pressure” on informal carers as the system was not able to deal with the level of unmet need for home-care ­ser­vices.

It was “clearly unacceptable” there were more people waiting for home-care packages than were receiving them.

Australian Industry Group chief executive Innes Willox, whose organisation represents the interests of more than 60,000 businesses, said there was already a comprehensive suite of entitlements and protections for employees with caring responsibilities.