Grandparenting in Europe: family policy and grandparents’ role in providing childcare

Younger grandmothers who are fit, healthy and with younger grandchildren are the most likely to be providing care for their grandchildren, however they are also the
very women who governments across Europe are aiming to encourage to stay in paid work for longer, in order to grow our economies and fund pensions, social care and
other welfare provision in later life. Their vital but invisible role in providing childcare, whether intensive, regular or occasional, is likely to conflict with their ability to selffinance their old age, especially as widows’ benefits in both state and employer pension schemes are eroded. The risk is an emerging care gap as older women remain in work longer, become less available to provide childcare and so adversely affect mothers’ labour market participation.