Convenor: Marjolein Broese van Groenou, professor of Informal Care, dept of Sociology, Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam, the Netherlands
The IN-CARE project (2019-2022) studied to what degree changes in long term care (LTC) policy exacerbate socio-economic status (SES) inequality in care and wellbeing. Central in the project is Saraceno’s typology of (de)familization of care and the assumption that LTC policy changes reflect either familization, de-familization by providing publicly paid services, or de-familization by services available on the market. The overall aim was to empirically assess the link between macro level policies and individual level care. Four work packages distinguished between care use and caregiving, and between a cross-national comparison and a country specific design. The UK team led by Karen Glaser, studied inequalities in care and wellbeing from a user perspective in a cross-national and longitudinal design using SHARE data. The German team led by Martina Brandt studied the same question from the caregiver perspective in a cross-national longitudinal design using SHARE data. The UK team (led by Mauricio Avendano and Ludovico Carrino) used a quasi-experimental design on ELSA data to study how changes in eligibility impacted inequality in care use in the UK between 2002-2019. Finally, the Dutch team led by Marjolein Broese van Groenou studied the impact of 30 years of LTC policies on care use in the Netherlands, using the LASA data. In this symposium the team leaders will present an overview of the main findings in four presentations, to be followed by a short discussion of the scientific and societal implications of our findings. Main conclusions are that i) a reduction of publicly provided services (familization) increases (pro-poor) SES inequality in informal and formal care use and has negative consequences for informal caregiver well-being, and ii) the association between care and wellbeing does not differ by SES, but there is evidence of gender differences in the link between caregiving and wellbeing. We conclude that the empirical interaction between LTC policies and SES proved useful, but needs more empirical foundation. In particular further work k is needed to assess whether and why (changes in) LTC policies impact the wellbeing of care users and caregivers directly.
Karen Glaser
Socio-economic inequality in care use and well-being in a cross-national and longitudinal perspective
Martina Brandt
Socio-economic inequality in caregiving and wellbeing in a cross-national perspective
Ludovico Carrino, Ginevra Floridi, and Mauricio Avendano
Cuts to social expenditure and inequalities in home care in England
Marjolein Broese van Groenou
Socio-economic inequality in care use and wellbeing in the Netherlands 1992-2018
Discussion by Marjolein Broese van Groenou of the scientific and societal impact of the findings of the IN-CARE project