Policies for carers in the Australian liberal welfare state Dr Trish Hill, Senior Research Fellow, Social Policy Research Centre, University of New South Wales, Australia Carers and Work-Care Reconciliation International Conference University of Leeds, 13th August 2013

1. Policies for carers in the Australian liberal
welfare state
Trish Hill
Social Policy Research Centre,
University of New South Wales
Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences
Carers and Work-Care Reconciliation:
International Conference
University of Leeds
13 August 2013

2. Overview of presentation
 The informal care infrastructure in Australia
 Policy context
 Caring and working in Australia
 Policies for carers in Australia
 Income support
 Services
 Employment regulation
 Recognition
 Role of the Carers Associations
 Future directions

3. The informal care infrastructure in Australia
 Australia has 2.6 million carers or 12 per cent of the population
 13 per cent of women
 11 per cent of men (ABS, 2010a)
 Current role of informal carers as a ‘partners in care’:
 Provide support to over 80 per cent of people with disability (50 per cent receive
support from formal sources) (ABS 2010b)
 Provide support to around 76 per cent of the frail aged (56 per cent receive
support from formal services) (ABS 2010c)
 Estimated economic contribution of informal care in Australia in 2010
 1.32 billion hours of unpaid informal care each year
 Valued at 40.9 billion Australian dollars if it was to be replaced by formal services
in the home (Access Economics, 2010)
 Described as the ‘invisible health workforce’ (National Health and Hospitals Reform
Commission, 2009: 61)

4. Policy Context
 Policies of de-institutionalisation from residential care to community
care since the 1980s
 Preference of older people and people with disability to live in their own homes
and the community
 National Carer Strategy 2011
 Vision of ‘an Australian community that values and respects carers and provides
them with rights, choices, opportunities and capabilities to participate in
economic, social and community life’ (FaHCSIA, 2012)
 Aims to ‘respond to the diverse and changing needs of carers with services and
supports that are coordinated, flexible, appropriate, affordable, inclusive and
sustainable’ (FaHCSIA, 2012)
 Six priority areas:
 Recognition and Respect
 Information and Access
 Economic Security
 Services for Carers
 Education and Training
 Health and Wellbeing (FaHCSIA, 2012)

5. Caring and working in Australia
 74 per cent of carers are of workforce age (18-64 years) (ABS, 2010)
 Nearly 1.4 million carers were employed (ABS, 2012)
 In 2009,
 34 per cent of all carers in full-time employment
 21 per cent of all carers in part-time employment (ABS, 2012)
 Gendered dimensions of caring and working - among primary
carers:
 Men - 28 per cent employed full-time, 12 per cent employed part-time
 Women – 16 per cent employed full-time, 25 per cent employed part-time (ABS,
2013)

6. Financial Assistance - Income support
 History of providing compensation to carers unable to engage in paid work
 1972 Wives pension – paid to wives of invalid and aged pensioners
 1985 Carer Pension for carers of a spouse, parent, other close relative, offspring or friend
 1996-Current Carer Payment: ‘financial support if you are unable to work in substantial paid
employment because you are providing full time care’ (AGDHS)
 Current rate is A$733.70 per fortnight for a single person - Approx £453 or 526 Euros
 Income and assets tested
 Work restrictions – study, train or work up to 25 hours per week (2005 - up from 10
hours in 1993) (Maker and Bowman, 2012)
 Carer Allowance, Carer Supplement, Carer Adjustment Payment, Bereavement
Payment
 40 per cent of carers relied on some form of income support as main source of income
compared to 24 per cent of non-carers (ABS, 2008:53)
 Income support and paid work
 In 2006, only 23 per cent of recipients had earnings while receiving Carer Payment (Ganley,
2009)
 Access to support for workforce re-entry through employment services providers
 Changes over time: expansion of eligibility and shift to focus on carers’ human capital
and attachment to the labour market (Maker and Bowman, 2012)

7. Employment regulations
 Fair Work Act 2009 National Employment Standards:
 Right to request flexible working arrangements for certain employees if a parent
of a child with disability aged under 18 years
 No obligation on employers to approve the request
 Eligible employees must have had 12 months continuous services or have had long-term
casual employment with the employer and ‘reasonably’ expect this to continue
 Carers/personal leave – 10 days paid leave per year which can accumulate to
care for family or household member, other unpaid leave and paid
compassionate leave.
 June 2013 – Fair Work Act Amendment Bill 2013
 Extension of right to request to all carers (within the meaning of the Carer
Recognition Act 2010);
 Definition of reasonable business grounds for refusal
 Issues:
 Awareness, implementation, workplace cultures

8. Services
 Liberal welfare state - targeting and income-testing
 Services for carers
 Respite, information and counselling
 Carer Support Centres
 Services for people with disability, their families and carers
 Trends in person-centred and consumer-directed care
 DisabilityCare Australia - national disability insurance scheme
 Better Start for Children with Disability
 Family Mental Health Support Services
 Living Longer Living Better aged care reform package
 Issues in the reforms for carers and reconciling work and care:
 Concerns that carers’ capacities, needs and aspirations are taken into account
 Impact on carers of shift to consumer-directed care

9. Carer recognition
 National Carer Recognition Framework
 Carer Recognition Act 2010 and National Carer Strategy 2011
 Carer Recognition Act 2010
 Aims to increase recognition and awareness of carers and to acknowledge the
valuable contribution they make to society
 Does not create any legally enforceable obligations (Phillips and Margarey, 2010)
 Care Aware: national carers awareness initiative by a partnership of
NGOs – endorsed by the Australian Government
 Aims to raise awareness, recognition, support and appreciation for
carers
 Care Aware Workplaces – designed to improve workplace arrangements

10. Role of carers associations
 Carers Australia and national network of State and Territory
organisations
 Advocated for carer’s interests and needs for income support, community
services, information and counselling
 Highlighted carers circumstances and the costs and value of their care
 Helped establish the 2009 parliamentary inquiry on carer support
 Argued for carers’ rights and recognition
 Argued for carers’ assessments in disability and aged care reforms
(Yeandle and Kroger, 2013)

11. Future directions in reconciling work and care in Australia
 Uncertain future: sustaining the informal care infrastructure in Australia
 National Carers Strategy: Australian Government
 Recognition: whether legislation will introduce enforceable obligations?
 Economic security: access to flexible work, income support and employment re-entry
 Services: carers’ roles as partners in care and needs for assessments
 Potential change of government will test the level of bipartisanship with respect to policies for
carers
 The impact of unpaid care on human rights: Australian Human Rights
Commission
 Investing in care: Recognising and valuing those who care (2013)
 Social case, economic case, business case and human rights case for change
 Rights to gender equality, non-discrimination, decent work and the related accommodation of
family and caring responsibilities within the right to work
 The impact of care on worker’s rights: Australian Council of Trade Unions
 Time to care campaign – right of appeal in right to request flexible work
 Role of employers and employer associations?
 Individual employer initiatives for carers
 No equivalent to Employers for Carers UK

12. References
Access Economics (2010), The economic value of informal care in 2010 Report for Carers Australia,Access Economics Pty
Limited and Carers Australia.
Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) (2008), A Profile of Carers in Australia, Catalogue number 4448.0, Australian Bureau of
Statistics, Canberra.
Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) (2010a) Disability, Ageing and Carers, Australia, Summary of Findings 2009, Catalogue no
4430.0, ABS, Canberra.
Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) (2010b), Disability, Ageing and Carers, Australia: Third Staggered Release, Tables 2,
http://www.abs.gov.au/AUSSTATS/abs@.nsf/DetailsPage/4430.02009?OpenDocument, 28/4/11.
Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) (2010c), Disability, Ageing and Carers, Australia: Fourth Staggered Release, Table 5,
http://www.abs.gov.au/AUSSTATS/abs@.nsf/DetailsPage/4430.02009?OpenDocument28/4/11.
Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) 2012 Caring in the Community, Australia 2009 Catalogue no, 4436.0, ABS, Canberra.
Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) 2013 Gender Indicators, January 2013, Catalogue no 4125.0, ABS, Canberra
http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/Lookup/4125.0main+features4210Jan%202013
Department of Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs (FAHCSIA) (2012) National Carer Strategy Action
Plan (2011-2014), Commonwealth of Australia, Canberra.
Australian Government Department of Human Services (AGDHS)(2013) Carer
paymenthttp://www.humanservices.gov.au/customer/services/centrelink/carer-payment viewed August 2013.
Ganley, R. (2009), 'Carer Payment Recipients and Workforce Participation' Australia Social Policy, No. 8, FaHCSIA, Canberra.
Maker, Y. and Bowman, D (2012) ‘Income support for Australian carers since 1983: social justice, social investment and the cloak
of gender neutrality’ Australian Journal of Social Issues, 47(4) 435-456.
National Health and Hospitals Reform Commission (2009) A Healthier Future for all Australians Commonwealth of Australia,
Canberra.
Phillips, J. and Magarey, K. (2010), Carer Recognition Bill, Report for Parliamentary Library. Parliament of Australia, Canberra.
Yeandle, S. and Kroger, T (2013) ‘The emergence of policy supporting working carers: developments in six countries’ in Kroger, T.
and Yeandle S.(eds) Combining paid Work and Family Care: Policies and Experiences in International Perspective, Policy
Press, Bristol.