Should there be a more active role of family care assistants in long-term care provision? Survey evidence on the view of German citizens

This paper deals with the public acceptance of policies that pave the way for a more active role of family care assistants in long-term care provision. Family care assistants, i.e. non-relatives providing homecare services in the own private home of the care recipient, provide valuable help for adult children organizing long-term care for their parents. However, their support comes at the price of transferring more family-owned wealth to non-relatives. Based on a survey among German citizens, we provide empirical evidence on the factors that drive the support for a more active role of family care assistants. We find support to be higher among subjects who gave long-term care personally. Monetary self-interest is found to matter. In addition, we find evidence of a clear line of conflict: Citizens with alive parents are more likely to support a more active role of family care assistants than citizens whose parents are dead.