Taskforce on Care Costs report

The Taskforce on Care Costs (TOCC) has released an interim report – Where are we now? Creating Choice: Employment and the Cost of Care. It calls for a 50% reimbursement of care costs paid by employees caring for the elderly and people with a disability. TOCC says such a reimbursement will result in increased workforce participation rates and has found that more than half of part-time employees with caring responsibilities would increase their hours of work if care was more affordable.

According to the TOCC report, the trend of care costs affecting the workforce is getting worse, not better, with more than 40% of employed carers indicating they are likely to leave the workforce in the future because of the cost of care. Without intervention, these unfavourable trends are likely to continue.

TOCC is a strategic alliance between peak non-government, government and business groups aimed at investigating the financial cost of care (for children, the elderly and people with a disability) and how those costs impact workforce participation of carers.

Report is available at http://www.neeopa.org/Interim_Review.pdf