Ageing and Care Poverty: Theoretical and Empirical Challenges

Abstract

In this article, the authors articulate care poverty as a new theoretical lens through which we might understand the challenges people face as they age and need help and support in their daily lives. They draw on similar theoretical frameworks such as unmet need in formal service provision, and demonstrate how care poverty is a more powerful epistemological and discursive tool than unmet need to analyse the complexity of needs and support that people have as they age, particularly by including the perspectives of those who give as well as those who receive care. The authors then draw on current research around defining and measuring care poverty to articulate a blueprint for further work needed and to demonstrate the clear policy and practice challenges posed by their findings.