What is the club sandwich generation? The term describes people supporting three or more generations at once, most often an ageing parent plus a grandchild or an adult child. It’s usually associated with people in their 50s and 60s. At that age, arranging a parent’s care often sits alongside grandchild care and retirement plans, and sometimes your own need for support.
Key Takeaways
- The club sandwich generation covers three or more generations, typically a parent, an adult child and a grandchild.
- Write down what you already do for each generation before agreeing to take on more.
- Older carers may be eligible for aged care support themselves, depending on their age and care needs.
- Your own retirement plans and your parent’s care decisions affect each other, so look at them together.
What Is the Club Sandwich Generation in Australia?
You might look after grandchildren a couple of days a week, help an adult child with living costs and arrange care for a parent in their 80s or 90s. Supporting three generations like this is what’s often called the club sandwich generation.
The more familiar sandwich generation picture is someone raising children while helping an ageing parent. Those responsibilities don’t necessarily end when the children grow up. Sometimes another generation arrives while your parent still needs the same help, or more.
So your parent’s care has to fit around children, grandchildren and your own plans for retirement. You may need some support yourself, too.
Sandwich, Club Sandwich Generation and Open-Faced: What’s the Difference?
The sandwich generation describes people helping an ageing parent while raising children or supporting adult children. You might be taking your dad to appointments while your children are at school or organising Support at Home for your mum while an adult child lives with you.
The club sandwich generation adds another generation. That could mean helping a parent, supporting an adult child and looking after grandchildren. The term can also describe younger people caring for children, parents and grandparents.
Then there’s the open-faced sandwich generation, a term for people caring for one side of the sandwich, typically ageing parents or relatives.
Our sandwich generation guide covers the wider picture, including government support, aged care options and sharing responsibilities with siblings.
What Club Sandwich Carers Take On
You’re probably doing different things for each generation. Your parent might need help with appointments and choosing aged care. An adult child might need a place to live or help with bills. Your grandchildren might stay with you after school.
Some commitments are easy to put in the calendar. Others arrive as a phone call while you’re doing something else.
That can make arranging your parent’s care less straightforward than simply finding a free afternoon. You may need to fit an assessment around school pick-ups, follow up a provider between appointments or find someone else to cover a day you’ve already promised to the grandchildren.
Providers and family will both ask what you can keep doing. It helps to have an answer ready that covers your regular commitments, including grandchild care, work and your own appointments, as well as any financial help you’re giving and how long you’ve agreed to continue it.
Looking at the whole picture also shows where some of it could shift. A sibling might take over the appointments, or a provider might cover the cleaning and transport your parent currently gets from you.
Your Own Aged Care Eligibility Matters Too
When you’re the person arranging everyone else’s care, it’s easy to leave your own needs out of the conversation.
But you can be a carer and need help yourself. Being able to organise your parent’s appointments, for example, doesn’t mean cleaning your own home or getting to the shops is easy.
Being a carer does not automatically exclude you from government-funded aged care. Your eligibility depends on your own age, care needs and circumstances.
You may qualify for an assessment if you need help with everyday activities and are:
- Aged 65 or over
- An Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander person aged 50 or over
- Aged 50 or over and homeless or at risk of homelessness.
Depending on your assessed needs you may be eligible for Commonwealth Health Support Program (CHSP) or Support at Home. Both can include help with cleaning, gardening, transport or personal care. The help must be for your own assessed needs, rather than to give you more time for other family commitments.
Your parent will have their own assessment. If you apply too, explain what you need help with, what support you already receive and the care you provide to others.
Read more about Support at Home eligibility or contact My Aged Care on 1800 200 422 to discuss an assessment.
Support for Club Sandwich Carers
When you’re looking into services for your parent, check what’s available to you as their carer as well. Carer support doesn’t depend on your age or on being eligible for aged care yourself, so it’s worth looking at even if you don’t qualify for an assessment.
Carer Allowance and the Age Pension
If you provide ongoing daily care, you may be eligible for Carer Allowance. It’s a supplementary payment, so you can receive it alongside other income or the Age Pension if you’re already on it.
Eligibility depends on your circumstances and the needs of the person you care for. Helping a parent doesn’t automatically qualify you, and both of you need to meet the relevant requirements.
Carer Payment works differently. It’s an income-support payment for eligible people providing constant care. You can’t receive it if you are receiving income from a job or pension, although some people who qualify for both can choose which one they receive.
Our sandwich generation support guide explains the different payments and where to check eligibility.
Carer Gateway
Carer Gateway supports you as a carer, rather than providing aged care services for your parent.
Eligible unpaid carers can access free support, including counselling, coaching, peer support and tailored support packages. Carer Gateway can also help you explore planned respite, where someone else looks after the person you care for, for a period of time.
Call 1800 422 737 to discuss what’s available. If you need emergency respite because you unexpectedly can’t provide care, the same number is available at any time. Options depend on suitable local services being available.
Make a back-up plan with family, too. Someone who can take your parent to an appointment may not be available to collect the grandchildren, so agree on who can cover each job before plans change.
Arranging Care for a Parent When You’re Retired or Close to It
Your parent may need more help just as you’re deciding when to retire. Or you may already be retired, with your income and savings planned around a particular budget.
Either way, your own plans are part of the picture when the conversation turns to paying for services or taking on more care.
Most parents cover their own aged care costs from their income, savings or the sale of assets. Where family does chip in, it’s usually for something specific, such as a bill that falls due before a payment comes through or a service that isn’t covered.
Paying a one-off bill is different from agreeing to cover a regular expense, and a loan is different from a gift. Families who’ve written down who’s paying for what, and when they’ll look at it again, tend to have fewer disagreements later.
Do Your Finances Affect Your Parent’s Aged Care Costs?
Your income and assets aren’t added to your parent’s means assessment just because you’re their adult child or carer. There are, however, situations where your circumstances matter.
If you live in your parent’s home and they move into residential aged care, for example, Services Australia may need to assess your circumstances to work out whether their home counts as an asset.
Our aged care fees, costs and funding guide explains the different costs. Before moving in, contributing a large amount of money or making decisions about your parent’s property, get independent financial advice.
Getting Your Parent’s Care Arranged
Start by talking with your parent about what they need help with now. It could be showering, preparing meals, cleaning or getting out and about. Ask what they’d like help with, as well as noting anything they can no longer manage safely.
An assessment through My Aged Care can help establish whether they’re eligible for government-funded aged care and which services may suit them. You can apply online or call 1800 200 422.
Once you know what’s been approved, you can look for a provider that can deliver the help your parent needs.
Be specific about your own availability when you speak with providers. If you look after grandchildren on Tuesdays and Thursdays, say so. A provider needs to know which tasks you’ll continue doing and which need to be covered by services.
You might still go along to appointments and help with decisions, for example, while a provider helps with personal care, cleaning or transport where those services are approved.
For more on the first steps, read our article on arranging care for ageing parents.
How Our Free Service Helps
Finding an aged care provider can take a lot of running around. Aged Care Decisions can do much of the legwork for you.
Let us know your parent’s care needs, location and preferences and we’ll find suitable options. We check services and availability with providers and bring that information together in your free Provider Options Report, to help you and your parents choose the right fit.
Our service is free and independent, and there’s no obligation to choose a provider we suggest. Your family decides what’s right for your parent. We find provider options, rather than assessing eligibility or giving financial advice.
Get your free Provider Options Report today.
