This project aims to provide a better understanding of the circumstances of young people who receive transfer payments to support them in providing ‘informal’ care to people with disabilities and the frail aged. The main focus is on the 20,363 young people who were aged under 25 years at some point between September 2001 and June 2006 and received Carer Payment or Carer Allowance, or both. (These are respectively a means-tested income support payment and a supplementary payment made by the Australian Government to support those providing informal care.) Analysis is mainly based on a longitudinal dataset of fortnightly Centrelink records over this period. Young carers in receipt of these payments are only a part of a wider group of young people who provide care and support to people with care needs. While information is collected on this larger group in household surveys and the Census, the definitions used in these vary and rarely provide sufficient information to differentiate between levels of care provision. They are also of limited value in understanding the young carer population and experience. The young carer group in receipt of assistance is far from homogenous and there are some strong grounds for looking at subgroups. In particular, the circumstances of younger carers in this group are quite different from those who are older. Younger young carers tend to be caring for parents and grandparents, while older young carers, especially those aged over 21 years, are increasingly looking after their own children with a disability, and partners. These older young carers account for the majority of young carers. While three-quarters of young carers overall are female, the proportion of males is higher in the younger age groups. Some of the key insights into the population of young carers generated in the study include: • Young carers were nine times more likely to be living in areas of high socioeconomic disadvantage, and in outer urban locations and smaller country towns. There were very marked differences in the incidence of caring by the country of birth of the young carer. While those born in some countries had very low rates, for others the rates were four to five times the population average. Indigenous young Australians were some two to three times more likely to be young carers. • Many young carers were part of a network of caring provision. One-quarter of the carees of young carers had been cared for by another carer in receipt of Carer Payment or Carer Allowance within the timeframe of the dataset. This most frequently involved a young carer and one of their parents caring for the other parent (or their parent’s partner), a young carer and their parent caring for a grandparent, or several young carers looking after a parent. • The levels of educational attainment and participation by young carers were generally low, as was their level of workforce participation. • Over one-half of the young carers were in the dataset at its commencement and end. However, only one-third of these were carers in their first record, with the others mainly being on other types of income support. Of those who were caring at this time, one-half were also recorded as caring at the end of the dataset, although not always continuously across the whole period. • The duration of caring was quite long, with 75 per cent of young carers still caring 47 weeks after commencing care and 50 per cent after 141 weeks. While the durations of care of younger carers in the group were below those of other carers in receipt of assistance, the durations of older young carers are similar to carers aged 25 to 54 years. A central question addressed in the study is the post-care experience of young carers. Comparison with other young people who received income support payments at some time showed young carers had a 25 per cent higher level of reliance on income support in both the period prior to and after caring. Compared with the population of young people as a whole, rates of reliance on income support in the post-care period of young carers were some two to three times higher. In addition to identifying several avenues for further work, the report notes: The characteristics and experiences of young carers aged 20 years and younger are quite different to those young carers aged 21 to 24 years. There may be merit in focusing the concept of ‘young carer’ on the younger age group only. • The association between the adverse levels of income support reliance by young carers after finishing care and their pre-care use of income support suggests that policy interventions may need to be targeted at an early age, with a strong focus on education. • Longitudinal data is critical to understanding the dynamics within the caring experience and the post-care experience of young carers. There is a clear need for the development of a longer and more up-to-date dataset to take into account the durations of care being provided, the dynamics of multiple caring, and the evolution of the payments which have seen increasing numbers of young people in receipt of Carer Payment and Carer Allowance. • Data collection in household surveys on caring needs to be much more sophisticated if it is to usefully contribute to understanding the role and circumstances of carers as a whole and young carers in particular
