Dear Sir,

Over the last few weeks much has been written about the role of ‘carers’– those who provide care in a paid capacity ‘care support workers’ and those who care unpaid for a friend or family member who due to illness, disability, a mental health problem or an addiction cannot cope without their support ‘carers’.

 

Britain’s cost-of-living crisis is fast becoming a key battleground area on which the next general election will be fought. As parties gear up for 2015, Labour has promised to alleviate the strain on hard-working parents with an increase in state-funded childcare. Hard on its heels, the coalition also proposes to extend the hours of free childcare to parents with two-year-olds.

While affordable childcare has long been recognised as key to our economic infrastructure, there’s a fast-growing group for whom no such election pledges have been aimed: the sandwich generation – those who carry the dual responsibility of caring for young children alongside elderly or disabled relatives.