‘We’re struggling’: Caregivers are feeling the financial squeeze, report says – National
Elizabeth Chambers stepped away from her dream job of being a teacher when she was 40, decades before retirement. But like many of Canada’s caregivers who are looking after ailing loved ones, she had little choice.
“It was one of the hardest decisions,” said the now 46-year-old. “I was very proud to be in the field of education, and I was proud that that was who I was.”
With her mother suffering from Alzheimer’s disease and her son dealing with lifelong learning disabilities, Chambers said they needed her full-time attention.
Canada’s caregivers are being financially squeezed as they try to balance having a career with taking care of loved ones who need them, a survey by the Canadian Centre for Caregiving Excellence shows.
Around six in 10 (59 per cent) said they are juggling their caregiving duties with their careers, while 36 per cent said caregiving had hampered their productivity and caused them to lose earnings.
Chambers is part of what is often called the “sandwich generation” — the cohort of Canadians, typically between the ages of 40 and 60, caring for both ageing parents as well as their children.
“People don’t know what our lives are like until they live them,” she said.
Pamela Barkhouse, who is based in Halifax, was 45 when her father was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s and lung cancer. Four years later, after he passed away, her mother developed cancer as well.
Barkhouse, 49 at the time, took an early retirement from her job to take care of her.
“The federal government was downsizing. There were workforce adjustments in the year 2011, 2012, just after my dad died and they were laying people off. Even though I wasn’t red-circled, I put up my hand because I found the caregiving exhausting,” she said.
While stepping away from her job helped her take care of her mother, and later her husband when he fell ill, it cost her in her retirement years.
“At the age of 60, when people start to think about drawing CPP, I then realized being out of the workforce for well over 10 years, the hit was huge because you were penalized for that in your retirement. You have not made [a] contribution to CPP, therefore you’re penalized for that lack of employment years,” she said.
When the financial strain of being a caregiver took a toll on Barkhouse and her husband, they had to readjust the dream they had for their retirement.
“We were pretty frugal. We loved boating and we loved travelling. Not that we travelled a lot, but we wanted to just experience life together without the stress of going to work every day. But that financial plan went out the window,” she said.
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Orlena Broome has no regrets about quitting her job when her son was eight so she could spend more time with him, as his needs required her attention. But she wishes she had better financial advice back then.
“The fact that I stayed home was good for the child. Not so good for my retirement,” she said.
Broome eventually returned to work, albeit in a different field. As an immigrant from Barbados who came to Canada in 1984, Broome was no stranger to starting over. But going back to work after eight years out of the job market proved difficult.
“I began again at the entry-level salary,” she said, “but it was still better than the zero salary I was getting as an unpaid caregiver.”
One in four Canadians is currently a caregiver and at least half will take on the role at some point in their lives, contributing an estimated $97 billion in unpaid labour each year, the report from the Canadian Centre for Caregiving Excellence (CCCE) shows.
“It is becoming unaffordable to care for our loved ones,” Liv Mendelsohn, executive director of CCCE, said.
The care crisis is holding Canada back from economic prosperity,” the report says, adding that working caregivers are “trapped in a vicious cycle of needing to work more to meet the financial demands of care and needing to work less to meet the time demands of care.”
The burden of caregiving predominantly falls on women in Canadian society, Barkhouse said.
“The statistics from the National Caregiver Strategy has pointed out that very, very clearly and predominantly the caregiving falls on the women,” she said.
The cost of caregiving begins well before retirement. Nearly half (49 per cent) of caregivers said they face financial strain, while one in five said they spend more than $12,000 a year out of pocket.
“You start selling things. You start dipping into savings that you thought you were going to be using once you turn 65,” Barkhouse said.
The cost of taking care of kids with special needs compounds over time, Broome said, especially when one person quits their job.
“You were grateful that you got time to stay home. But at the same time, you were now down to one income. You’ve got an extra mouth to feed. An extra month that needs special formulas, special apparatus and speech therapy,” she said.
Professional care is also getting harder to find for many Canadians. More than three-quarters (76 per cent) of care providers are considering leaving the profession, citing low wages and safety concerns, the report shows.
“I needed to be educated (myself). I started researching how to do lifts, how to transfer from a chair to a bed, how to not hurt myself when I’m doing that, how to interact with somebody who has dementia,” Barkhouse said, adding it was critical for nurses and personal support workers to be adequately compensated.
The lack of professional care takes a toll on families, Chambers said.
“If we don’t have nurses, my husband and I are staying up. That is going to mean that we’re now getting lack of sleep,” she added.
“Our health and social systems depend on unpaid caregivers and underpaid care providers, but like the roads, bridges, and buildings we rely on every day, our governments need to invest in this critical infrastructure before it collapses,” Mendelsohn said.
Canada is currently in the midst of its largest-ever wave of retirements, with all baby boomers set to hit retirement age by 2030, having far-reaching implications for Canada’s economy and labour market, a recent RBC report said.
The boomer retirement wave, which started in 2011 when the oldest boomers turned 65, will reach its peak by the end of this decade, the Royal Bank of Canada report said.
By 2024, two-thirds of all boomers had reached retirement age, and the remaining boomers will reach age 65 by 2030.
“We’re struggling, and I would worry about what’s happening next,” Chamber said.
As provinces play catch up with the ageing population, the expenditure on health care is the biggest risk to Canada’s financial stability, a recent Desjardins report says.
According to Statistics Canada, the share of people 65 years and over in the population went from 16 per cent in 2015 to 19.5 per cent in 2025 and could rise to nearly 23 per cent by 2035.
“As the population ages, this gets compounded. On the revenue side, the share of working-age Canadians who finance these rising expenditures is getting smaller,” Randall Bartlett, deputy chief economist at Desjardins said in the report.
The Canadian Centre for Caregiving Excellence calls for higher wages and better working conditions for care workers, including protections for migrants who work in the sector.
The report also calls for improved access to mental health supports, respite care, and practical services.
In addition to fixing staffing shortages, the group is also asking the government to “simplify and expand access to tax credits and benefits” for people receiving care, as well as their families.
“Canada’s care system is under strain — but the path forward is clear. With targeted action, governments can reduce pressure on caregivers, improve productivity, strengthen workforce participation, and build a more resilient care system for the future,” the report says.
Elizabeth Chambers stepped away from her dream
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