Life after the carer’s allowance: what do we know about the postcaregiving transition in Ireland?
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Date
2020Author
Sheridan, Celia
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Sheridan, Celia. (2020). Life after the carer’s allowance: what do we know about the postcaregiving transition in Ireland? Dearcadh: Graduate Journal of Gender, Globalisation and Rights, 1. doi:https://doi.org/10.13025/ntxc-w861
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Abstract
There is much discourse around carers but less so around the post-caregiving
transition and how carers navigate the pathway from carer to former carer. This article
stems from a wider research project, which explored the role of the Carer’s Allowance in
Ireland and the economic independence of carers in receipt of the Allowance. However,
the focus of this article is on the post-caregiving transition, which remains an underresearched area of caring, particularly the implications for recipients of the Carer’s
Allowance.
The article contextualises the Carer’s Allowance policy and discusses some of the findings
from the qualitative research noted above. It identifies a number of gaps, which act to
constrain carers’ ability to fully participate in the workforce, limiting them to part-time
precarious employment, or to disengage entirely from the workforce. It also means that
carers and former carers have differential access to state pensions due to interrupted
employment during their life course. These limitations restrict former carers in their ability
to reconstruct life after caring, and ultimately determines the outcomes of the postcaregiving transition.