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Centre for Policy on Ageing | |
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| Older persons' views on using cash-for-care allowances at the crossroads of gender, socio-economic status and care needs in Vienna | | Author(s) | Andrea E Schmidt |
| Journal title | Social Policy and Administration, vol 52, no 3, May 2018 |
| Publisher | Wiley, May 2018 |
| Pages | pp 710-730 |
| Source | http://www.wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/spol |
| Keywords | Social security benefits ; Expenditure [elderly] ; Family care ; Informal care ; Consumer choice ; Independence ; Socio-economic groups [elderly] ; Needs [elderly] ; Older men ; Older women ; Austria. |
| Annotation | This study aimed to contribute to understanding social inequalities resulting from familisation (or de-familisation) tendencies among cash-for-care beneficiaries in Austria, a Conservative welfare state. It highlighted justifications for choices in accessing and using care in a cash-for-care scheme from the perspective of care recipients aged 80 years and older in Vienna. Along key dimensions characterising care recipients' experiences, four different user groups were identified which reflected recipients' individual characteristics, particularly gender, socio-economic status (SES), and care needs, and the respective care arrangement. The groups were dubbed: (1) the self-confident; (2) the illiterate; (3) the dependent; and (4) the lonely. Narrative interviews with 15 frail older people were held in 2014 and analysed using the framework analysis method. Results showed that familiarity with support structures associates with higher SES, while those who depend on others for acquiring information or organising care express ambivalence in choosing between formal and informal care. Engagement in deciding which care type to use was limited among people of lower SES or with complex care needs, but own experience as informal caregiver for a family member increased care recipients' long-term care (LTC) system literacy. Gender differences among care recipients were limited, yet middle-class female recipients often expressed normative claims for family care from female relatives. The study concludes that unconditional care allowance schemes may reinforce existing gender relations, particularly among informal caregivers, as well as underpin socio-economic differences among LTC users in old age. Results also partly question the assumptions of choice and empowerment implicit in many cash-for-care schemes. (JL). |
| Accession Number | CPA-180504213 A |
| Classmark | JH: J3: P6:SJ: P6: WYC: C3: F:T4: IK: BC: BD: 76A |
Data © Centre for Policy on Ageing |
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| ...from the Ageinfo database published by Centre for Policy on Ageing. |
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