As the UK’s demographic time bomb continues to count down, eldercare provisions are evolving as the benefit becomes more valued by employees, discovers Simon Kent.

 

Eldercare is gaining importance politically and among employers as more workers find themselves needing to support older relatives. Although there are few clear solutions on the market, paid or unpaid flexible work and the provision of advice are among the most valued benefits, and are already having a significant impact on attraction and retention rates.

 

The need for eldercare is increasing significantly as a demographic time bomb looms. A study from the Institute for Public Policy Research suggests that, by 2032, 1.1 million older people in England will need care from their families.

 

The result of advances in medical technology, healthier lifestyles and the decline of traditional heavy industries, many of which were life-shortening, is a population that is increasingly top heavy. As people live longer there is a greater chance that they will experience a long-term condition or debilitating illness. Witness the rise in the number of people with dementia-related conditions. Add into this increasingly unconventional family structures – second (or more than two) families, parents being older when they have children, grown-up children living some distance away from their ageing parents – and it becomes clear why some employees feel under pressure from both ends of the familial spectrum.

 

In 2014, research from Employee Benefits magazine and Towers Watson stated that emergency eldercare within flexible benefit plans was set to grow by 142%. Although this figure could be seen as alarming, it should be remembered that the starting point for such provision is still low. The same research found just 9% of organisations offered eldercare as a flex option, although a further 10% were planning to add it to their scheme. In contrast, other research found just 4% of companies offered eldercare in any form as a core benefit and 3% provided it as a voluntary benefit.

 

Over the next few years, however, this could change drastically. Although suggesting there is ‘more smoke than fire’ over the issue, Kim Honess, head of flexible benefits at Willis Towers Watson, says there is huge interest in these types of benefits. She speculates whether this interest has increased as the people affected – those who find they have elderly relatives to care for – have ascended to positions where they can influence company policy to help. Now, however, with the government aware of the problem but yet to act on it – Honess suggests it might eventually do something through tax reliefs – and insurance companies hesitant to provide any specific product for the market, solutions can be filed alongside other forms of flexible health provision.

 

‘Where a flexible health plan already exists there may be scope for extending provision,’ Honess says. ‘Dental cover or cash plans and sometimes private medical insurance schemes can be used to cover your spouse or children. In some cases they can add in an option to cover parents – often at higher rates since it’s more likely there will be more claims for an older person.’

 

Such provision is commonly set up on a case-by-case basis but remains the preserve of large companies where economies of scale can keep costs to realistic levels. That said, such schemes are still at an experimental stage where future products will be affected by the performance of what is offered to employees.

 

‘Employers should look to take a consistent approach wherever possible,’ advises Erica Dennett, managing associate at Cripps LLP. ‘An employee who needs to adjust their working hours to take care of an elderly relative should look to put in a flexible working request. An employer would consider this case by case, taking into account the needs of the business and the role the employee undertakes.’

 

As with the provision of benefits generally, employers must guard against discrimination in what they offer staff with caring responsibilities compared with those who may not need this kind of assistance. Although it might be attractive to restrict support to older or more senior employees who may have more need for the resource, excluding others could lead to difficulties. To an extent, however, eldercare support can feel different from other benefit frameworks. The need to take time off to care for someone may not be viewed as a ‘choice’ in the same way as working flexibly to look after children or improving the work–life balance is. The challenge of being a carer affects the way in which support should be offered to these employees.

 

Eldercare provision creates challenges in other ways. Compared with childcare, for example, demand and delivery can be unpredictable. Childcare is generally a regular event, requiring a consistent resource to key in with the employee’s work patterns. This is diametrically opposed to eldercare when a person’s suddenly deteriorating condition can leave the employee subjected to all manner of challenges: immediate care needs, hospital visits, care demands after hospital discharge, power of attorney responsibilities, and residential care, which in itself raises the issue of financial management to meet the bills.

 

‘You need to recognise that carers will have different needs at different times,’ says Dianah Worman, research and policy adviser at the CIPD. ‘The needs of the person they are caring for might be short or long term, they may increase with time with a condition such as Alzheimer’s, or it can just come out of the blue.’

 

Worman explains that, whatever happens, it can be emotionally and physically demanding for the carer. As a result, the mix is quite complicated.

 

Organisations should work to understand how to deliver effective provision in this area by learning what might be needed and how to manage it. Employers might also need to consider offering paid leave, she says.

 

Alongside this provision, however, is the need for a workplace culture that enables the carer-employee to take the available benefits without feeling they are somehow letting the side down at work.

 

‘You need people in the business to know it is okay and that means being able to manage the absence effectively,’ says Worman. ‘That might mean training people on how to cope. It is about building agility into your business – enabling it to deliver a sustained performance whatever happens.’

 

 

In 2005, British Gas founded a carers’ network and now has a community of more than 1,000 employees sited around the country working in roles as diverse as power station technicians and mobile service engineers. The reasons for caring among British Gas employees are equally varied, and include long-term illnesses, accidents, and operation recovery as well as eldercare.

 

The network helps to streamline support for these individuals, ensuring they are aware of what the company can offer them as well as provide a focus for advice and discussion among the community.

 

Chair and customer account manager in the multi-tenancy department, Geoff Kitchener, says that before the network was established there was no overall picture about who was caring, for whom they were, and how much time off they were taking.

 

‘No one knew if that employee’s manager knew they were a carer and if there was a change of manager they wouldn’t be told,’ he says.

 

The network operates effectively alongside British Gas’s other benefits for carers. These include one-month matched paid leave a year, the right to flexible working in terms of reduced or alternative hours, or working from home, and free 24-hour advice and assistance from independent counsellors. In 2014, 2,500 British Gas employees took carers’ leave, averaging three to four days.

 

The benefits of this scheme and ones like it have been examined by Employers for Carers, a group of businesses that are committed to helping working carers. It is chaired by British Gas and supported by campaigning and advice charity Carers UK. In 2013, Employers for Carers undertook a survey, which found the following benefits among organisations that provided support for carers:

 

 

The most obvious support an employer can give is to allow flexible working, insists Robert Dolbear, managing director at relocation management company HCR.

 

He says: ‘This can be on a planned basis for employees to fulfil their regular caring responsibilities but also, as importantly, on an ad hoc basis for employees to deal with those short-notice crises that can often arise with the elderly.’

 

Paid carers leave is becoming more common. However, employers are also looking to put in place wider support services that address the plethora of issues that can arise when supporting elderly parents.

 

These additional resources include care advice, financial guidance, legal support – for wills, powers of attorney and back-up care – when care arrangements fall through or an emergency occurs, and dealing with property and possessions when downsizing or moving to residential care. Given the variables, it is as important for employees to be able to access information and advice as it is for them to receive time off.

 

Dolbear is clear that employers that invest in these kinds of initiatives are doing so because of the benefits they gain through retention and recruitment, but his views on take-up among the workforce and employers are noteworthy.

 

‘Where an employee contribution is required to gain access to certain services, perhaps as a flexible benefit, those employees used to paying for professional services are more likely to engage,’ he says. ‘Similarly, professional practices, such as lawyers and accountants that readily recognise the value of time, are more inclined to pay for putting the appropriate support in place for their employees.’

 

The eldercare market is in a state of flux, perhaps mirroring the situation with the other area of ‘saving for old age’ – the pension – where options are becoming increasingly diverse in the name of individual choice. Encouraging eldercare provision may follow a similar pattern – making it attractive to save or offer salary sacrifice arrangements to provide the support required.

 

‘We are seeing more employers revising their benefits provision and focusing on their networks that help provide support for employees that have this need,’ adds Oliver Black, director of My Family Care.

 

As a result, there has been greater take-up of advice and support through My Family Care's Work+Family Space platform, where employees can access resources, guidance, care search, and back-up care on how to prepare and then navigate this stage of life.

 

In short, if employers aren’t already acting on this agenda they will need to do something soon.

 

Simon Kent is a freelance writer.

 

Shared from Pay and Benefits Magazine