This article was originally sent in to The Straits Times Forum but was not published. 

A recent article highlighted the need to provide social and emotional support for family caregivers, particularly young caregivers (“Room for more cooperatives to meet social needs of ageing population”).

Plenty was said about the importance of institutionalising support in the form of support groups, coordinated resources, and training to improve caregivers’ expertise in providing care.

These are valuable resources that more caregivers should indeed have access to.

Family caregiving is an issue that will affect a substantive portion of the population, and the demands of it are also falling on vulnerable family members, like the elderly and children. The Sunday Times editorial “Support for young who care for the old” cites a case where an 11-year-old prepares medication, dresses and cooks for her elderly wheelchair-bound mother every day.

While we can appreciate the love and care shown by the child, we should question why families are expected to go through so much hardship to care for their elderly relatives in the first place – and we should be critical of a system that creates such difficult, limiting circumstances for these families.

Last month, AWARE held a dialogue session with over 40 individuals, most of whom were former or current caregivers. Some shared how family caregiving affected their career, ability to work and their long-term financial situations, including having to rely on their savings or use their own Medisave funds to pay for the healthcare needs of their elderly relatives.

Currently, there are no schemes that directly compensate caregivers for the labour they perform. How can Singapore address the short- and long-term impact caregiving has on caregivers’ economic and financial health?

Some caregivers we spoke to as part of our upcoming research on eldercare have called for allowances for caregivers, caregiving leave and flexible work arrangements to ease caregivers’ access to stable income. What is sorely missing from existing schemes are mechanisms that will support the financial position of caregivers.

We urge for bolder steps to be taken to financially support our family caregivers, so that their livelihoods and economic security are not at risk. It is not enough to merely applaud the sacrifices that family caregivers make. Ultimately, we need to take into account the financial hardships that often come with caregiving, and end the cycle of struggle, where caregivers themselves end up impoverished as they age and require care