Older Workers and Caregiving in a Global Context

Abstract

First paragraph: Population ageing is a global phenomenon whose impact on working age populations is only now being fully recognized and understood. Increased longevity, due to improved quality of life, advances in health, and better welfare provision, is generally accepted as a success story that will be ongoing with the expectation that populations worldwide will live to increasingly older ages (OECD 2012; WHO 2015). Governments around the world are now keenly focused on the social and economic challenges thrown up by population ageing. Some of the policy responses include encouraging older people to stay in the labour market, increasing the pension age, promoting self-funded retirement rather than reliance on a state pension, reducing entitlements to contain fiscal costs, and the introduction of personalised budgets or consumer-directed care in the provision of aged care services (Chomik and Piggott 2015; Gill and Cameron 2015; Chomik and Piggott 2012; Chomik and Whitehouse 2010).